AKEL submitted today to the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs a bill criminalizing pornographic material produced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, in order to fill the legal gap that creates difficulties in the adjudication of cases, as stated after the meeting by AKEL MP Christos Christofides.
Mr. Christofides expressed his satisfaction with the positive reception that the proposed law received, as he said, both from the Members of Parliament and from the bodies that had been invited to the Committee meeting, including experts, involved Ministries, the Police, academics, as well as members of the "Voice" Council, which is responsible for the Implementation of the National Strategy for Combating the Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children and Child Pornography.
Responding to questions from journalists, Mr. Christofides explained that it was considered necessary to amend the law, stating that there have been difficulties in legal cases due to the lack of provision for the criminalization of child pornography produced by AI. He noted that in order to produce this material, AI machines must be fed with real child pornography material. He added that the circulation of such material has the effect of programming the human brain to accept such images and actions.
"We will make some legal changes, taking into account the observations of the Legal Service, and we believe that this bill should be brought to the plenary session of the Parliament for a vote as soon as possible," said the MP, stating that "the message is that the sexual exploitation of children, whatever form it takes, cannot be tolerated for even one more day."
He also stated that the clarification that will ensure the inclusion of child pornography produced with AI should be found in the introductory articles of the law, so that there is no differentiation of child pornography produced with technological means from other categories of pornography.
Mr. Christofides said that a European regulation is still being prepared on this issue, while the British Government announced yesterday its intention to criminalize child pornography produced with modern technological means.
"We are one step ahead and we must keep this step ahead because no society can wait a day, a week, a month, or even a long time to face a huge social problem, as described by Europol, whose reports we read today, and as described by university research, such as the University of Edinburgh, which says that the sexual exploitation of children on the internet has reached such massive proportions that the victims reach 300 million," Mr. Christofides emphasized in his statements.
Source: KYPE
