Australia Moves to Outlaw AI Child Abuse Tools

A landmark bill is set to be introduced to the Australian parliament, aiming to criminalize the use of artificial intelligence tools that are purpose-built to create child sexual abuse material.

Independent MP Kate Chaney is spearheading the legislative effort, arguing that the issue is far too urgent to await the government's comprehensive response to the broader challenges of AI. While Australian law already prohibits possessing or sharing child abuse material, a significant loophole exists: there is no specific criminal ban on downloading or distributing the new wave of AI generators designed to create this abhorrent content.

These dangerous tools are becoming increasingly accessible online, with some of the most popular sites recording millions of visits. Their proliferation is not only straining police resources but also enabling the creation of material offline, making it incredibly difficult to track.

Kate Chaney says holes in Australia's laws putting children at risk must be plugged urgently. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)

The Alarming Rise of AI Generated Abuse

The proposed bill addresses what Ms. Chaney describes as tools that enable the "on-demand, unlimited" creation of abuse material. This technology presents several grave dangers. Perpetrators can train AI models with images of a specific child, generate illicit material with simple text prompts, and then delete the original files to evade detection.

This new reality poses a significant challenge for law enforcement, as it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between AI-generated images and photographs of real children who are active victims. Critically, Ms. Chaney emphasized, "every AI abuse image starts with photos of a real child, so a child is harmed somewhere in the process."

Details of the Proposed Legislation

The bill, introduced by the MP for Curtin, would establish a new offense for using a carriage service to download, access, supply, or facilitate technologies specifically designed to create child abuse material. It would also create a separate offense for scraping or distributing data with the intent to train or build these tools.

If passed, these offenses would carry a maximum prison sentence of 15 years. To ensure legitimate investigations can continue, a public defense would be available for law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and other authorized bodies.

Experts Urge Swift Legislative Action

This legislative push follows a recent roundtable of experts who recommended swift action to make these tools illegal. Participants agreed that unlike other areas of AI, there is no public benefit to consider with child abuse generators, meaning there is no reason to delay action.

Former police detective inspector Jon Rouse, a roundtable participant, stated that Ms. Chaney's bill addresses an "urgent legislative gap." He noted, "While existing Australian legislation provides for the prosecution of child sexual abuse material production, it does not yet address the use of AI in generating such material."

Jon Rouse says AI abuse material is trained on real victims, and so its generation harms real children. (ABC News: Tobias Hunt)

Colm Gannon of the International Centre for Mission and Exploited Children echoed this sentiment, calling the bill a "clear and targeted step to close an urgent gap."

Government Response and the Broader AI Challenge

In a statement, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland affirmed that the government's top priority is keeping vulnerable people safe and that it would "carefully consider any proposal that aims to strengthen our responses to child sexual exploitation and abuse."

This targeted bill arrives as the federal government continues to develop its overarching strategy for AI. It has yet to respond to a major review of the Online Safety Act from last year, which also recommended criminalizing so-called "nudify" apps. An earlier inquiry had advised the government to take the strongest possible regulatory option by creating standalone laws for AI.

Ms. Chaney stressed the core challenge: "The technology moves fast and government does not move fast, so we need to get it right but we also need to plug these gaps as they appear."