Bill > LD524

Introduced Session

An Act to Protect Children from Technology-facilitated Sexual Abuse Emergency preamble. Whereas, acts and resolves of the Legislature do not become effective until 90 days after adjournment unless enacted as emergencies; and Whereas, this Act extends the prohibitions in current state law against the creation, dissemination and possession of sexually explicit material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct to similarly prohibit the creation, dissemination and possession of images that have been modified or generated, including through the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, technology, so that the images appear to depict minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct; and Whereas, perpetrators of these crimes have already begun creating child sexual abuse material using technology through which they modify existing images of identifiable children or through which they wholly create images that appear to depict children engaged in sexually explicit conduct, but these perpetrators cannot be prosecuted because this conduct is not currently prohibited by state law; and Whereas, as generative artificial intelligence technology continues to advance, it is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish between unaltered child sexual abuse material subject to prosecution under current law and modified or AI-generated child sexual abuse material not currently subject to prosecution; and Whereas, it is essential to clarify state law as soon as possible to prevent sexual exploitation of children; and Whereas, in the judgment of the Legislature, these facts create an emergency within the meaning of the Constitution of Maine and require the following legislation as immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety; now, therefore,

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Amy Kuhn (D)*, 

Governor's Action: Emergency Signed, Apr 16, 2026 (on 04/16/2026)

Official Document