Legal and Regulatory Frameworks for Addressing AI-Generated CSAM in the U.S. and Canada

A comprehensive CHILD USA report updated through October 31, 2024, documents that 11 U.S. states including Idaho, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Iowa, Georgia and Virginia enacted laws in 2024 explicitly adding AI-generated content to their CSAM statutes. The REPORT Act, signed into law on May 7, 2024, expanded federal reporting obligations to include not only existing CSAM but also planned, imminent and apparent violations of federal CSAM laws, with NCMEC releasing implementation guidelines in October 2024. The report notes that as of October 2024, at least 37 states are considering legislation to expand laws targeting the creation and distribution of nonconsensual sexual deepfakes, and increased statutory penalties for knowing and willful failures to report online sexual exploitation of children from 150 to 300 thousand dollars.

Mandatory reporting frameworks now extend to AI-generated and imminent threats, but detection infrastructure must operate in real time to fulfill the obligation before harm occurs. Guardii operates anti-CSAM detection including AI-generated and deepfake material across direct-message conversations on Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and other platforms, identifying solicitation, coercion and exchange patterns as they emerge rather than after content has been created or distributed. By analyzing the conversational escalation, demand structure and targeting behavior that precedes CSAM transmission, Guardii enables platforms and institutions to fulfill expanded reporting obligations under the REPORT Act at the point of imminent or apparent violation, surfacing the shape and seriousness of a conversation to the appropriate authority and enabling rapid escalation in an emergency, without handing anyone a feed of what was said or requiring post-hoc review of completed exchanges.