High Court tightens punishment: Artificial abuse material with children is punished as real images

A 29-year-old man from Randers produced child abuse material and sold it to customers all over the world.

The Western High Court on Thursday significantly increased the sentence for a man who used artificial intelligence to produce sexual abuse material with children. When the Randers Court heard the case in January, the sentence was one year and three months in prison. But only the three months had to be served. The rest was made conditional.

On Thursday, the High Court reached a significantly different result. The sentence was changed to an unconditional prison sentence of one year and six months, the prosecution said.

The case has been described as one of the first about abuse material produced using artificial intelligence. According to a special prosecutor from the State Attorney in Viborg, the High Court has removed any doubt about the legal situation and has also sent a clear signal.

“Even though this is AI-generated material, it involves a fairly large number of images where the defendant was the ringleader and made money from distributing the images, which are also very serious in nature,” says special prosecutor Emil Stenbygaard.

“Therefore, the sentence has also been changed in relation to the district court’s verdict, and I am very satisfied with that, because abuse material in any form must be prevented,” he says.

Earned 25,000 kroner on 36,209 pictures

The 29-year-old man produced the material and then sold it to a large number of interested parties around the world. The case has led to actions by police authorities in several countries. 273 buyers have been identified, the police cooperation agency Europol said in February.

The young Russian man was convicted of producing 36,209 images of children in sexual situations. The images were then distributed via a subscription scheme, which earned the man 25,000 kroner.

The 29-year-old explained in the district court that he was not aware that he had done anything criminal before the police kicked open the door to his apartment and arrested him.

“It may look like a child in the picture. But if the child doesn’t exist in reality, I don’t really think there’s a victim,” he said.

But the High Court’s ruling shows, according to the prosecution, that abuse material created with artificial intelligence can be equated with material of real abuse.

ritzau