Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

THE GREATEST THREATS to children’s safety are no longer confined to dark alleys or strangers cruising in vans. They are embedded in the digital spaces children enter every day — on phones, gaming platforms, social media, and increasingly through artificial intelligence capable of generating child sexual abuse material.

Predators now have unprecedented, real-time access to children. The digital landscape has never been more dangerous for young people or difficult for parents to navigate. The online targeting and exploitation of children is far from isolated, exacerbated by the fast pace at which emerging AI technology is becoming more publicly accessible.

Just days ago, a former Mississippi school teacher was sentenced to prison for using artificial intelligence to create child pornography using his students’ faces. An Arizona man was recently prosecuted under a state law specifically criminalizing AI-generated child pornography.

In Massachusetts, these horrific crimes often cannot be prosecuted to the fullest extent because the state remains one of only five in the nation that has failed to explicitly criminalize computer- and AI-generated child sexual abuse material. As technology evolves, so do the tactics used to exploit children. Laws must evolve, too. Every day without action leaves children more vulnerable and predators more protected. It is past time for Massachusetts to close this dangerous gap in the law.

AI is being used to create nude images of real children through “deepfake” and “nudification” tools that digitally remove clothing in photos. The problem has gotten so bad that 1 in 17 adolescents now report being victims of deepfake sexual imagery. If you have a family member in middle or high school, chances are they already know someone who has fallen victim. But it’s not just deepfakes putting kids at risk. Perpetrators are now using AI chatbots and generative models to impersonate children or create explicit AI images of teenagers for “sextortion” blackmail — a scam that has led to children committing suicide.

This is a measurable policy failure documented in the World Childhood Foundation USA’s 2025 Out of the Shadows Index, a state-by-state research report. Conducted by Economist Impact, our research found that the Commonwealth faces a significant gap in legal protections for children and families.

The numbers are alarming and climbing exponentially across the US. In 2023, there were 4,700 reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Kids. In 2024, that number rose to 67,000, and in 2025 reports exploded to 1.5 million. Here in Massachusetts, state police reported receiving more than 23,000 child exploitation-related CyberTipline reports last year, marking a 77 percent increase since 2024.

Thankfully, Massachusetts lawmakers have gotten the ball rolling with Senate Bill S.2633, a bill that, if strengthened, can make Massachusetts a leader in keeping kids safe from AI-related sexual abuse.

The legislation would take a long-overdue step by making Massachusetts the 46th state to criminalize AI-generated child sexual abuse material. Yet despite the crisis, the bill has stalled for months, and even as written, it still falls short. Since the legislation only covers “creation,” it leaves legal wiggle room for those who distribute or disseminate AI-generated material. By expanding the definition, we can ensure that no predator can hide behind loopholes. As written, the bill also lacks exemptions for law enforcement and researchers, which technically criminalizes the handling of evidence.

This is not a partisan issue, nor is it a complicated one. Children are being sexually abused and exploited every day through gaming platforms and social media. Meanwhile, the technology predators use is becoming faster and cheaper. Our laws and enforcement mechanisms continue to lag dangerously behind, and children are paying the price. Every day without meaningful legislative change keeps children in harm’s way.

While there’s no silver bullet, a strengthened S.2633 is the right place to start. Massachusetts faces a clear choice: lead in protecting children or continue leaving them vulnerable in a rapidly evolving digital world. The cost of waiting will be measured in shattered lives.

Mary Pulido is executive director of World Childhood Foundation USA, a nonprofit devoted to developing solutions to end the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.