Sexual predators now using AI and South Carolina’s laws can’t keep up

GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - There’s a new wave of criminal activity targeting children and investigators say South Carolina’s laws are leaving them exposed.

Sexual predators are now using AI to create child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

While creating, possessing and distributing traditionally created CSAM is illegal, South Carolina’s laws don’t cover AI-generated images.

Jennifer Newman, NCMEC’s executive director, said there are two ways AI is being used. One way involves predators taking a pre-existing photo and asking AI to turn it into something explicit.

The other way involves predators writing a text prompt and having AI created an explicit image out of it.

“They can use this technology to create an image and say, ‘Do I like this or do I not like this?’ Which we know, unfortunately, if they do like this, what that’s going to lead to,” Newman said. “They’re going to end up looking for more imagery online. They’re going to want the real thing and unfortunately they may even commit a hands-on offense.”

From mid-2023 through the end of 2024, Newman said they received 7,000 reports involving AI-generated CSAM.

Some of those reports are from South Carolina.

“It’s happened so quickly. It’s just exploded,” said Internet Crimes Against Children Chief Criminal Investigator Kevin Atkins.

Atkins team works within the South Carolina Attorney General’s office. When cyber tips come in, they analyze each one.

But if the image turns out to be AI-generated, the case has to be closed. Atkins said he’s hoping lawmakers change that soon.

“We had the opportunity in South Carolina to be at the forefront, and now we’re going to play catch up,” Atkins said.

Right now there are five bills sitting in the Statehouse that would make AI-generated CSAM, also called morphed images, illegal.

Several were introduced last year too, but they didn’t get passed.

Atkins said unless action is taken, more offenders are going to utilize the new technology.

“Some people may say that’s just a picture – just an artificially created picture,“ Atkins said. ”I think if you are relying on those images to get by, so to speak, how long can you last on just fake images before you need to move on to the real thing?"

There are 12 other states where AI-generated CSAM is not criminalized.

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