Increasingly, creators are utilizing AI to produce adult content as the generative AI boom continues to expand. From text to image AI, the ways to create all types of adult content are endless. These tools generate adult content using various types of input data. It also raises the ethical and legal issues of consent, age, and intent of the content being created.

This article seeks to answer these issues to give creators, users, and business professionals a clear guiding framework to understand potential legal issues related to the use of AI porn.

 

What is an AI Porn Maker?

Commercially available AI porn makers generate explicit content using neural networks trained to create images or videos. These types of tools use various types of input data to:

• Create fictional adult characters
• Edit or modify existing images, or
• Create deepfakes of real people

While some of these platforms may market themselves as “harmless fantasy tools,” the legality of using such tools often lacks legal precedent, and the AI-generated sexually explicit imagery could be treated as real, and even in the absence of existing imagery, illustrable.

 

 

The Variables That Determine The Legality of Autonomous AI Porn Maker Monetization

The factors that most frequently determine the legality of AI services that create pornography are based upon the existence or absence of the following:

1.   Explicit Consent

Failure to obtain the proper legal rights to use, real, or fictional content based upon the absence or presence of valid legal consent.

Numerous nations view unwanted AI pornography as:

• Image-based sexual abuse.
• Invasion of Privacy.
• Defamation or Harassment.

 

2.  Protection of Age and Minors

Regardless of whether a real child is involved, almost all nations consider illicit AI-generated sexual content that portrays or resembles children illegal. Many legal statutes specifically indicate that realistic portrayals are equivalent to child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

3.  Distribution vs. Private Use

Some jurisdictions are concerned with distribution and publication, while others criminalize the production, possession, or even the viewing of unwanted AI pornography.

4.  Realism and Identifiability

Greater legal danger exists in the more realistic and identifiable the person is. Usually, more lenient treatment is afforded to generic or obviously fictitious characters.

 

 

Legal Status by Major Jurisdictions

 

United States

In the U.S., there is no singular federal law that bans AI pornography; however, there are enforcement mechanisms via a combination of state and federal laws.

The use of non-consensual AI pornography is progressively being criminalized via laws on revenge and deepfake pornography.

In most states,

• There are harsher penalties related to the distribution of the material than creating it for private use.
• There is a federal law that makes it illegal to use AI to create sexual content involving minors.

Recent federal law has set limits and penalties on different platforms against distributing AI-generated deepfake pornography without user consent.

The US Legal takeaway: Consensual adult AI porn: most times are legal. Non-consensual or child-like content: criminal.

 

European Union

In the European Country, The use of someone’s likeness without consent can be a violation of the biometric data protection laws, resulting in significant fines.

• AI-based services must incorporate user likeness.
• Services must indicate which content was AI-generated.
• Services must provide a way to report abusive or illegal content and respond to reports of abuse without delay.

France, Germany, and Spain are individual states that criminalize sexual deepfakes.

Legal takeaway (EU): Limited legality regarding adult fiction or consensual roleplay.

 

United Kingdom

The UK applies existing image-based abuse and online safety laws to AI-generated sexual content.

• Production or dissemination of non-consensual sexual deepfakes is a crime.
• Prison, fines, and civil liability are potential penalties.
• Data protection and harassment laws are also applicable.

Legal takeaway (UK): Consensual adult AI porn: It is allowed, while producing deepfake content without seeking permission of the individual is prohibited.

 

South Korea

 

This is one of the most harsh countries in terms of AI-generated pornography. To be criminally liable, one can also possess or view the non-consensual AI (porn) content.

The country’s strong enforcement supports its firm position on digital sexual crimes.

Legal commentary:

• Most AI-generated pornography involving real people: illegal. Even viewing some materials is punishable.

 

China

China has strict regulations on AI content through the ‘deep synthesis’ law.

• Mandatory consent and labeling play a role.
• Keeping in mind the stringent limitations, it is illegal to create sexually explicit materials through AI that employs real identities.
• Both platforms and users may incur financial penalties and other enforcement actions.

Legal commentary (China):

• AI pornography with real and identifiable people is illegal and poses considerable legal risks.
• Moderated content that is fictional is legal.

 

Australia, Singapore and other regions

Other regions have laws in relation to AI and digital content, including Australia, Singapore, and some African and Latin American countries.

• Australia: Laws are in relation to the non-consensual distribution, and there are continual reforms.
• Singapore: It is a criminal act to create synthetic images that are intimate in nature, without consent.
• The rest of Africa and Latin America: Laws are still very much in relation to the other existing laws, primarily on privacy, cybercrime, and harassment, with more frequent and active consideration of the misuse of AI.

 

What is Generally Legal vs Illegal

In the majority of countries, adult fictional characters created by AI and computer-generated pornography are legal. Most countries have few regulations and enforcement shutdowns. The materials created must not violate the country’s guidelines of obscenity. Contrarily, materials utilizing a real identifiable individual without permission are illegal in many countries.

Even if an image or video is entirely synthetic, the unauthorized use of a person’s face, body, or voice may still constitute image-based sexual abuse, invasion of privacy, or harassment. Many contemporary deepfake law definitions include sexually explicit content generated by artificial intelligence.

Worldwide, the production of AI-created pornography that depicts minors or that which is synthetically produced that may be realistic depictions of minors is illegal. Most nations impose the same legal penalties on the production of AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery as they do on the production of actual child pornography, regardless of whether a real child was involved in its production.

In some jurisdictions, the use of AI-based pornography, for one’s own use, is in a legal gray area. Some jurisdictions are concerned only with the end distribution of pornography, while others have laws that prohibit the creation, or possession, of non-consensual sexual deepfake videos.

The act of producing AI generated pornography without seeking proper disclosure from the user is highly prohibited in most countries. Such an act is prohibited by law and can lead to strict penalties such as imprisonment, etc.

 

legal Usage Tips

 

• In the case where real likenesses are used, obtain consent in writing
• Do not use AI programs that require the use of photos of real persons.
• Always delete or avoid the generation and storage of content resembling minors.
• Follow the rules for labeling content generated by AI.
• Follow the rules for your jurisdiction in addition to the platform’s rules.

 

Final Remarks

The legality of the operation of AI tools for the creation of pornographic content does not expect to have a definitive answer. In many jurisdictions, the generation of computer-created pornographic content, even though the characters are fictional and have not given consent, is deemed to be legal. In contrast, the generation of recordings of individuals with the use of Deepfake technology, where the individuals refuse to provide consent, is being criminalized to a greater extent on a global level. The pace of change in the statutes is rapid. There is a likelihood that legal provisions viewed today as legal protection, may be eliminated in the near future.

If you intend to use AI tools for the generation of pornographic content, or if you are in a position to provide such tools, it is of paramount importance to have an understanding of the laws that are in place to avoid the serious criminal or civil liabilities that may arise.