Tuesday, June 17, 2025
New York State has officially enacted legislation to make the possession and distribution of AI-generated pornographic images of minors a felony offense. The measure, introduced by Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz of District 15, which covers parts of Glen Head and Glenwood Landing was passed as part of the 2025–2026 state budget.
Here are the top three things to know about the new law and why it matters:
The catalyst for the legislation, formally known as the New York Child AI Safety Act, was a 2023 case in Nassau County involving a Patrick Carey, a Seaford man who used artificial intelligence to digitally insert underage girls’ faces into pornographic images and then distributed them online. Despite this, the perpetrator could only be charged with a misdemeanor under then-current law. Carey received just six months in jail and was required to register as a sex offender.
“It was deeply disturbing to me and to many in the DA’s office — including District Attorney Anne Donnelly — that the law hadn’t caught up with technology,” Blumencranz said. “So we were determined to get out the word that we needed to change the law here, and we needed to change the way that we were treating this, as a form of abuse and a form of assault on these girls.”
The new law reclassifies the creation and dissemination of AI-generated sexualized images of minors as a felony offense, giving prosecutors the legal tools to pursue harsher penalties.
While the legislation addresses crimes enabled by AI, Blumencranz emphasized that its focus is narrow and intentional.
“It’s important not to encapsulate all artificial intelligence as dangerous,” he said. “What we really focused on with this legislation is specifically the use of deepfakes as a form of artificial intelligence utilized, and in this case weaponized, against women and girls.”
Deepfakes, which use machine learning to create realistic synthetic images and videos, have been at the center of growing concerns related to privacy violations, misinformation, and abuse. In this case, the technology was used to exploit children by creating images that, while not technically real photographs, were real enough to cause lasting trauma to the victims.
“This is a 21st-century crime,” Blumencranz said. “We’re sending a clear message that you can’t get away with harassment in this form or any form against children.”
The Child AI Safety Act is just one part of a growing legislative push in New York to regulate artificial intelligence in a way that balances consumer protection with technological innovation.
Blumencranz, who serves as a member on the Assembly’s Science and Technology Committee and Subcommittee on Internet and New Technology, has spearheaded multiple AI-related bills in recent years. These include legislation requiring disclosure of AI use in election campaign materials, the AI Deception in Elections Act, and new requirements for transparency in AI-powered pricing algorithms and “companion bots,”
“There’s a lot of movement when it comes to legislating in this space,” Blumencranz said. “We need to do it in a way that protects both consumers without stifling innovation and stopping businesses to continuing to want to do business here in New York.”
He credited DA Donnelly’s office for helping to shape the bill and the local media for keeping public attention on the issue. “We didn’t just talk about protecting children. We did something about it,” Blumencranz said. “And I’m proud to say that Nassau County led the way.”
