The Pennsylvania House has passed a bill to combat the dangers of artificial intelligence, focusing on deepfake images targeting minors and reforming how these cases are reported. Rep. Nikki Rivera, a Democrat from District 96, expressed her concerns about the issue. “It’s extremely concerning,” Rivera said. As a mother of five and a former teacher with 35 years of experience, Rivera hopes the legislation will prevent the spread of manipulated images. “We want to make sure what people are seeing is believable and that what people are manipulating doesn’t spread if it’s inappropriate,” she said. The bill would require easier reporting of suspected deepfakesThe bill requires mandated reporters to include AI-generated deepfake images in their concerns about child abuse. “What it does is make sure that all the categories of mandated reporters report AI deepfakes as part of the group of concerns about child abuse,” Rivera said. Rivera explained that the current process for mandated reporters involves gathering evidence and conducting investigations before filing police reports, which she aims to simplify.”We want to take the guesswork out of it for mandated reporters and say if you suspect something or see an image that is a minor and you don’t know if it’s fake or real, report it anyway,” she said. “It needs to be easy for someone to report and not make them second-guess whether they should or not.” A Lancaster case inspired the legislationThe legislation was inspired by a years-long investigation involving Lancaster Country Day School students who used artificial intelligence to create nude images of their classmates. “The closure that survivors need is that people that are doing this be stopped and stopped immediately because what we saw happen in some school incidents is that it wasn’t stopped immediately and resulted in 50-60 victims,” Rivera said. She emphasized the importance of education and preventative measures. “We can’t control anybody but ourselves, but we can educate. We can put in guardrails. We can help coach and teach people through behaviors, so we create a saner adulthood of people not victimizing other people,” she said. The bill is expected to go to the Senate for a vote next month.
The Pennsylvania House has passed a bill to combat the dangers of artificial intelligence, focusing on deepfake images targeting minors and reforming how these cases are reported.
Rep. Nikki Rivera, a Democrat from District 96, expressed her concerns about the issue. “It’s extremely concerning,” Rivera said.
As a mother of five and a former teacher with 35 years of experience, Rivera hopes the legislation will prevent the spread of manipulated images. “We want to make sure what people are seeing is believable and that what people are manipulating doesn’t spread if it’s inappropriate,” she said.
The bill would require easier reporting of suspected deepfakes
The bill requires mandated reporters to include AI-generated deepfake images in their concerns about child abuse. “What it does is make sure that all the categories of mandated reporters report AI deepfakes as part of the group of concerns about child abuse,” Rivera said.
Rivera explained that the current process for mandated reporters involves gathering evidence and conducting investigations before filing police reports, which she aims to simplify.
“We want to take the guesswork out of it for mandated reporters and say if you suspect something or see an image that is a minor and you don’t know if it’s fake or real, report it anyway,” she said. “It needs to be easy for someone to report and not make them second-guess whether they should or not.”
A Lancaster case inspired the legislation
The legislation was inspired by a years-long investigation involving Lancaster Country Day School students who used artificial intelligence to create nude images of their classmates.
“The closure that survivors need is that people that are doing this be stopped and stopped immediately because what we saw happen in some school incidents is that it wasn’t stopped immediately and resulted in 50-60 victims,” Rivera said.
She emphasized the importance of education and preventative measures. “We can’t control anybody but ourselves, but we can educate. We can put in guardrails. We can help coach and teach people through behaviors, so we create a saner adulthood of people not victimizing other people,” she said.
The bill is expected to go to the Senate for a vote next month.
