Artificial intelligence is fueling a new wave of online child exploitation, allowing predators to create fake nude images from a single social media photo and use them to blackmail minors for money or explicit content. The federal government responded last year by passing the TAKE IT DOWN Act, a law requiring social media companies to remove nonconsensual intimate images, including AI-generated deepfake pornography and child sexual abuse material (CSAM), within 48 hours of a valid complaint or face penalties of up to $53,000 per violation. At the same time, California lawmakers are currently advancing AB 1946 and SB 1276 to strengthen protections for children targeted by online predators, traffickers, and AI exploitation.
These laws are emerging as online exploitation grows at an alarming pace. A 2025 survey found that 1 in 17 teens reported being directly victimized by AI-generated deepfake nude imagery, while the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received reports involving more than 61.8 million files of suspected child sexual abuse material in 2024.
What the Federal Law Does
The TAKE IT DOWN Act creates a national reporting system through TakeItDown.ftc.gov, the FTC’s new complaint portal. This law covers a range of harmful content, including AI-generated “deepfake” pornography (digitally fabricated sexual images or videos), revenge porn (intimate images shared without consent), sextortion images (sexual images used for blackmail), child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and all nonconsensual intimate images.
Platforms had a full year to build compliant reporting systems. That grace period ended last month. According to the FTC, Chairman Ferguson sent letters last week to major platforms, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Automattic, Bumble, Discord, Match Group, Meta, Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit, SmugMug, Snapchat, TikTok, and X, “reminding them of businesses’ obligation to comply fully with TIDA no later than May 19, 2026.”
First Lady Melania Trump, who worked for the act’s passage with its author Senator Ted Cruz, said the following at the bill signing: “Today, through the TAKE IT DOWN Act, we affirm that the well-being of our children is central to the future of our families and America.”
Why It Matters for California
While the TAKE IT DOWN Act establishes a national framework, California faces particularly severe challenges tied to social media-driven exploitation and trafficking. A report by the Children’s Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law found that social media has become a primary pipeline for trafficking and child exploitation. The Human Trafficking Institute reported that in 2020, “the internet was the most common location for recruitment” into trafficking. Among victims recruited through social media, 65% were recruited through Facebook, while Instagram and Snapchat accounted for another 22%.
TikTok has also been identified as a platform where predators exploit minors through livestreams, manipulating children with digital gifts or off-platform payments.
The report warned that traffickers frequently use child sexual abuse material as part of broader exploitation schemes:
“Traffickers may create, encourage the creation of, upload, or transfer child sexual abuse materials as part of their trafficking scheme.”
The Children’s Advocacy Institute also emphasized the horrific reality behind the material being circulated online:
“The images and videos that are reported are not merely sexually suggestive or older teenagers who ‘look young.’ This content depicts crime scene activity. Children, including those who are too young to call for help, are raped, abused, and exploited in this imagery.”
According to the report, 67% of identified child victims depicted in CSAM are prepubescent or younger, including infants and toddlers.
The abuse does not end when the image is uploaded.
“They are revictimized every time a sexually abusive image or video in which they are depicted is traded online and a new predator takes personal gratification in their anguish or uses the imagery to entice another child into sexual abuse.”
California’s fight against exploitation
Now lawmakers are attempting to close the loopholes, AB 1946 passed the California Assembly unanimously, 75-0, and now heads to the Senate. The bill fixes one of the most disturbing flaws in current law: under existing rules, only the depicted victim can report child sexual abuse material online, forcing sexually abused children to search for and report their own abuse images themselves.
AB 1946 changes that by allowing anyone who encounters CSAM to report it.
“Not only does it allow anybody who sees a CSAM video to have the opportunity to be able to report it, not just victims who would be put in the position of looking for their own abuse material, but it allows anyone to see something and say something,” said Assemblymember Krell during the hearing.
Additionally, this bill reduces re-victimization by using hash-matching technology to automatically identify known CSAM, limiting the need for repeated human review of abuse imagery.
Nichole, the mother of a child sexual abuse survivor whose abuse material has circulated online, testified in support of the bill:
“Many of the children being depicted are below the allowable age for them to be engaging on these platforms in the first place. By allowing anyone to report these images, you’re taking the responsibility off children and allowing the grown-ups in the room to speak up on their behalf.”
She also explained the lifelong trauma survivors endure when their abuse remains online:
“Imagine the worst thing that has ever happened to you having been recorded and shared out into the world without your consent.”
SB 1276 complements those efforts by closing a loophole that lets people watch child sexual abuse, including AI-generated images of real children, without criminal consequence.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act, alongside AB 1946 and SB 1276, treats child exploitation not as a content moderation issue but as a human dignity crisis. Every person bears the image of God. The law of California, and now the law of the United States, is beginning to say so as well.
“When artificial intelligence can be used to create fake pornography from an ordinary photo, every child with a social media account becomes vulnerable,” said Greg Burt, Vice President of the California Family Council. “California and the federal government both have a responsibility to protect children from digital exploitation and force platforms to take these crimes seriously.”
What You Can Do
Bookmark TakeItDown.ftc.gov. If you, your child, or someone in your church or school has had an intimate image shared without consent, including an AI-generated deepfake, you can request removal and report platforms that refuse to comply.
Contact your representatives and urge them to support AB 1946 and SB 1276.
Talk to your teenagers about AI deepfakes and sextortion. Children need to know these acts are crimes and that help exists.
