New York Senator Introduces Bill to Criminalize Possession of AI-Generated Child Sex Abuse Material
Guardii Analysis
New York Senator Patricia Fahy introduced legislation on September 10, 2026, to criminalize possession of wholly synthetic AI-generated child sexual abuse material, addressing a gap in current state law. The bill responds to a surge in AI-related CSAM reports received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which climbed from 4,700 in 2023 to more than 400,000 in 2025. New York's existing statute covers digitally altered images of real children but does not explicitly reach entirely computer-generated imagery that depicts no identifiable victim.
Statutory amendments that expand criminal liability after imagery is created and possessed leave children exposed during the window in which offenders generate, refine, and share material across platforms. Guardii's anti-CSAM detection module, backed by Startmate and operating across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox, and other services, identifies the exchange of child sexual abuse material—including AI-generated and deepfake content—at the point of transmission in direct-message conversations, flagging both traditional and synthetic imagery in real time and surfacing high-risk exchanges to platform moderators and, where configured, to parents or safeguarding professionals before the material is saved, stored, or forwarded. Interception at the conversation layer complements criminal prohibition by cutting off distribution before possession occurs.