{"id":2792,"date":"2026-04-11T02:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T02:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/2792\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T02:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T02:04:10","slug":"alaska-senate-panel-strips-sweeping-social-media-provisions-from-bill-on-ai-generated-sex-abuse-material","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/2792\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska Senate panel strips sweeping social media provisions from bill on AI-generated sex abuse material"},"content":{"rendered":"

JUNEAU \u2014 An Alaska Senate panel removed sweeping restrictions<\/a> on the use of social media by minors from a bill that would criminalize using artificial intelligence to generate child sexual abuse material, along with imposing other restrictions on AI usage that harmfully impersonates real people.<\/p>\n

The House in February unanimously passed the bill\u2019s previous version, which included provisions restricting social media use for minors and penalties for companies that facilitated the creation of AI-generated child sexual abuse material. However, the Senate Community & Regional Affairs Committee stripped out those measures due to legal concerns before advancing the legislation Thursday.<\/p>\n

As AI technology has progressed and boomed in the past couple years, so has its usage to generate child sexual abuse material. Reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse material rose over 6,000%<\/a> from 2024 to 2025, according to advocacy group Enough Abuse. As of last year, 45 states have enacted laws to criminalize AI-generated child sexual abuse material, the group says.<\/p>\n

Alaska\u2019s bill<\/a> makes it a felony to possess or distribute AI content depicting an apparent child engaging in obscene sexual content. AI-generated child sexual abuse material is illegal under federal law<\/a>. But enacting the measure in state law gives state prosecutors the jurisdiction to bring about charges, said Homer Republican Rep. Sarah Vance, the bill\u2019s sponsor.<\/p>\n

Vance said part of her inspiration for introducing the bill was an incident at her daughter\u2019s middle school in Homer, where two students used AI to create fake nude photos of classmates<\/a> in 2023. Similar cases have emerged across the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two other provisions that were added to the bill on the House floor in February remain in the version moving forward. Those include more specific protections that also apply to adults.<\/p>\n

Under the bill, the distribution of a forged digital likeness \u201cwith intent to defraud, harass, threaten, or intimidate\u201d would be a misdemeanor. This would criminalize the use of deepfakes for scams or revenge, with strong exceptions for satire. The bill would also make it a misdemeanor to distribute AI-generated nude or sexual images or video, or AI \u201crevenge pornography,\u201d that impersonates a real, identifiable adult.<\/p>\n

Vance voted in support of all of the measures added to her bill, except for social media restrictions for minors. She said she was concerned that the restrictions on social media could hold up an otherwise legally sound bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that Alaskans see the growing concern about social media on our young people, and want us to do something, but it will need to be addressed in a much deeper, focused discussion,\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n

The provision on social media restrictions, known as the Alaska Social Media Regulation Act, was the most controversial of the additions that House representatives made to the original bill in February, but was still adopted 28-12 with bipartisan support. <\/p>\n

Those restrictions included requiring user age verification, parental consent for minors to use social media and parental access to the minor\u2019s account, as well as limitations on advertising and \u201caddictive features\u201d for minors.<\/p>\n

That measure was modeled largely after a Utah law that passed in 2023, which has since been challenged in federal court<\/a> by a trade association that represents companies including Google and Meta.<\/p>\n

Legislative counsel raised concerns that the constraints in the Alaska House\u2019s version of the bill could violate free speech rights guaranteed under the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

Another addition by the House sought to fine AI companies $1 million each time their platforms are used to generate child sexual abuse material. Legislative counsel raised concerns that that provision, as well as the social media restrictions for minors, would violate a rule that requires all elements of a bill to fall under a single subject. <\/p>\n

Senate Community & Regional Affairs also moved out of committee the Senate companion bill to Vance\u2019s, sponsored by Juneau Democratic Sen. Jesse Kiehl. That bill has remained largely similar to its original form, addressing only the criminalization of AI child sexual abuse material.<\/p>\n

Both bills now go to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Chair Matt Claman is working with leadership on a not-yet-introduced omnibus crime package<\/a>. Vance said she has talked with Claman about potentially adding her bill to the package. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JUNEAU \u2014 An Alaska Senate panel removed sweeping restrictions on the use of social media by minors from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2871,2872,24,25,2873,2874,2875,2876,2877,2878,2879,2880,2881,633,2882,76,2883,2884,2885,2886,2887,2888,599,2889,2890,2891,2892,2893,2894,2895,2896,2897,2898],"class_list":{"0":"post-2792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-10-11-years","9":"tag-8-9-years","10":"tag-ai","11":"tag-artificial-intelligence","12":"tag-back-to-school","13":"tag-caucasian-ethnicity","14":"tag-cheerful","15":"tag-child","16":"tag-childhood","17":"tag-communication","18":"tag-connection","19":"tag-corridor","20":"tag-cute","21":"tag-development","22":"tag-dialing","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-elementary-school","25":"tag-females","26":"tag-high-school","27":"tag-holding","28":"tag-indian-ethnicity","29":"tag-joy","30":"tag-learning","31":"tag-males","32":"tag-mixed-race-person","33":"tag-mobile-phone","34":"tag-preschool-building","35":"tag-smiling","36":"tag-telephone","37":"tag-text-message","38":"tag-text-messaging","39":"tag-typing","40":"tag-wireless-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}