We (adults) created a world with knives, guns, automobiles. But if any of these were used by a child for manslaughter would you still blame collective adults? No, parents are held responsible for protecting their children and controlling their access to dangerous tools.

Would the impact have been any different if they had used photoshop?

The minors were charged with 20 counts of creating child sex abuse images and 20 counts of offenses against their victims’ moral integrity.

The article doesn't make the claim that the AI is what makes it illegal, simply that AI was used. It's literally the second sentence. Indeed, it goes on to highlight that there are legal novelties prosecuting the use of AI.

As far as I understand; it's not the tools used that makes this illegal, but the realism/accuracy of the final product regardless of how it was produced.

If you were to have a high proficiency with manual Photoshop and produced similar quality fakes, you'd be committing the same crime(s)

creating child sex abuse images

and

offenses against their victims’ moral integrity

The thing is, AI tools are becoming more and more accessible to teens. Time, effort, and skill are no longer roadblocks to creating these images; which leaves very very little in an irresponsible teenagers way...

The minors were charged with 20 counts of creating child sex abuse images and 20 counts of offenses against their victims’ moral integrity

Punishment or not, those charges are still scary. I think the probation and courses are a good addition.

I disagree, these children are minors and the their behavior, while abhorrent, belies a fundamental lack of perspective and empathy.

I've been a teenage boy before and I did some bone-headed things. Maybe not this bad, but still, I agree with the judge in this instance that it would be inappropriate to impose permanent consequences on these kids before their life even gets started because they were stupid, horny, teenage boys.

Even if we assume that these kids don't all have well-meaning parents who who will impose their own punishments, having a probation officer in high school is not going to help with popularity. Then, mandatory classes that will force these boys to evaluate the situation from another perspective seems like a great add-on.

I know it doesn't feel like justice, but our goal as a society shouldn't be to dole out maximum punishment in every instance. The goal is to allow all of us to peacefully coexist and contribute to society - throwing children in a dark hole somewhere to be forgotten isn't going to help with that.

Having said all of the above, it feels like a good time to emphasize that we still don't have any good ideas for solving the core problem here, which is the malicious use of this technology that was dumped on society without any regard for the types of problems that it would create, and entirely without a plan to add guard rails. While I'm far from the only one considering this problem, it should be clear enough by now that dragging our feet on creating regulation isn't getting us any closer to a solution.

At a minimum it feels like we need to implement a mandatory class on the responsible use of technology, but the obvious question there is how to keep the material relevant. Maybe it's something that tech companies could be mandated to provide to all users under 18 - a brief, recurring training (could be a video, idc) and assessment that minors would have to complete quarterly to demonstrate that they understand their responsibilities.

People used to say that about social media