WASHINGTON, D.C. — A recent federal appeals court ruling has reignited a major debate over how U.S. law should address artificial-intelligence-generated images depicting child sexual abuse.
On August 25, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a federal possession charge against Steven Anderegg involving AI-generated images that depicted minors in sexually explicit situations.
The court noted that the images did not involve real children.
The court relied on earlier U.S. Supreme Court decisions involving First Amendment protections for material that does not involve actual child victims.
The judges acknowledged, however, that today’s AI technology has created images that can be virtually indistinguishable from real abuse material.
The ruling does NOT mean everything involving AI-generated CSAM is protected.
Anderegg’s charges involving production, distribution and transferring the material to a minor remain separate from the possession issue addressed by the appeals court.
Two judges also expressed concern that existing Supreme Court precedent was developed before today’s highly realistic generative-AI technology existed and suggested that the U.S. Supreme Court may need to reconsider the legal framework.
For child-safety advocates, the ruling raises difficult questions about how laws can keep pace with technology that can create realistic depictions of child exploitation without directly using a real child’s image.
The case demonstrates an increasingly important challenge:
Technology is advancing faster than the laws designed to protect children.
