AI generated child pornography cases common, HHPD uses technology to detect if real or fake
By Pamela Comme
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HOLLY HILL, Florida (WESH) — AI-generated child pornography cases are becoming more common. Recently, the Holly Hill Police Department arrested 22-year-old Jesus Rodriguez for possession of child porn. Police say two of the photos were AI-generated.
“With a click of a button, you can have a photo-generated, versus trying to go out and find an AI photo or mimic a certain type of act,” said Chief Byron Williams, Holly Hill PD. “You can just have a computer generate that for you.”
Law enforcement agencies, including HHPD, are cracking down on the troubling spread of child sexual abuse photos created with AI.
“It has become very sophisticated,” said Williams. “And sometimes… you can’t look past the natural eye and see the difference between AI and reality,” said Williams. “But we do have software and platforms out there that can detect the AI-generated photographs.”
They used that technology on Rodriguez. While it is unclear whether Rodriguez purchased or created these photos, FIU professor Mark Finlayson said those photos are not hard to create.
“They’re probably not all that sophisticated in their guardrails,” said Finlayson. “And so it’s probably pretty easy to trick the systems into generating child pornography, even if they’ve been designed ostensibly not to.”
University at Buffalo professor Siwei Lyu said a large fraction of AI use is for pornographic purposes. He believes there are many more cases out there.
“I think this is probably just the tip of the iceberg,” said Lyu. “There are a lot more cases that go unnoticed.”
Child advocates also worry that law enforcement agencies might waste time and resources trying to track down exploited children who don’t actually exist. This is why programs designed to help detect whether an image is real or fake, though not widely known, are a game changer.
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