Some think the First Amendment gives them the right to pedal porn, but the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that truly obscene material is outside the protection of the First Amendment.
What is obscene? In Miller v. California(1973), the Court set out a three-part test for determining whether a publication is obscene:
(a) whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards’ would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest … (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
The Alabama obscenity statute, Sec. 13A-12-200, basically mirrors the Miller test, as do the laws and ordinances of most states, counties and communities. This generally gives law enforcement sufficient authority to protect communities against pornography, if they have the backbone to enforce it.
But cyberspace, coupled with artificial intelligence (AI), presents new threats and raises new issues in protecting children from porn. As Brandon Moseley writes in The Alabama Gazette, pornography producers can use “artificial intelligence to graft [a] person’s face onto A.I. generated imagery for the creator’s own entertainment or more commonly to ruin the reputation of real-world people.” He continues:
On platforms like Grok AI, users can upload innocent photos – often pulled from social media – and transform them into explicit images that appear very real – especially when shared on I-phone or Android. Even though the images are fabricated, the emotional, reputational, and psychological damage to the victims is very real.
The victims can be high school cheerleaders, the boys on the baseball team, a teacher, or the neighbor’s kids. Anybody can become an unknowing victim of this identity theft.
According to the New York Post, a 13-year-old girl was expelled from a Louisiana middle school because she struck a male student who allegedly shared AI-generated nude photos of her – even though she asked school officials twice to help stop the spread of the images. A lawsuit appears likely in this case.
This will likely spread exponentially. All pornographers need to do is find a photo of an innocent person, generate a nude body to go with it, and they’re in business.
Fortunately, or providentially, State Rep. Ben Harrison (R-Elkmont), one of the most courageous and reliable conservatives in the Alabama Legislature, has introduced a bill addressing this problem. Producing AI porn is already illegal, but HB347 goes further, providing an avenue for victims to sue platforms, hosts, or payment processors that recklessly facilitate the distribution of AI-generated, sexually-explicit images. “Illicit materials,” as described in the bill, include images created, altered or generated to depict a real person in a sexualized or nude manner without their written consent.
In addition to the right of the individual depicted in sexually-explicit material to sue for damages, the Alabama attorney general may also seek emergency injunctions to stop the distribution of such materials, collecting civil penalties of up to $7,500 per violation.
The Christian Coalition of Alabama has taken the lead fighting to end the production of these images through AI-generated prompts and solicitation and is fully supportive of this commonsense measure. It's now time for Christians to demand action.
HB347 provides a valuable additional tool for battling the sexual abuse of children through pornography. It should draw a broad coalition of supporters including Christians, conservatives, law enforcement, women’s and children’s groups, and many others. The bill is worthy of your support; I urge you to write your state representatives and senators and express your support. And please give a big thanks to Harrison for having the courage and insight to support this bill, and to Christian Coalition of Alabama for taking the lead in backing it.
Col. Eidsmoe serves as Professor of Constitutional Law for the Oak Brook College of Law & Government Policy (obcl.edu), as Senior Counsel for the Foundation for Moral Law (morallaw.org), and as Chairman of the Board of the Plymouth Rock Foundation (plymrock.org). He and his wife Marlene live in rural Pike Road, Ala. He may be contacted for speaking engagements at [email protected].
Dr. Randy Brinson is a physician, a former candidate for the United States Senate, and Chairman of the Christian Coalition of Alabama. He may be contacted for speaking engagements at [email protected].
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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