# Courts just allowed AI child sex abuse material because it’s ‘virtual.’ Who do you think it’s trained on?

> Source: <https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/op-eds/4732550/ai-csam-first-amendment-legal-loophole-predators-renderings-based-on-real-kids/>
> Published: 2026-09-19 14:00:00+00:00

The recent 7th Circuit opinion permitting in-home possession of [AI-generated](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/artificial-intelligence) child sexual abuse material raises many questions regarding the relationship between protected speech and generative AI.

While most people would say [CSAM](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/pornography) of any child — real or virtual — should be illegal, the decision relies on precedent from the 2002 *Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition* decision, holding that computer-generated CSAM, possessed in one’s own home, does not violate the First Amendment. But that decision did not contemplate the present realities and may not be applicable to today’s AI-generated CSAM.

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