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8 LONG TITLE
9 General Description:
10 This resolution declares child sexual abuse material to be at odds with the standards of
11 the people of Utah.
12 Highlighted Provisions:
13 This resolution:
14 ▸ discusses the increased proliferation of child sexual abuse material on the Internet;
15 ▸ outlines how emerging technologies contribute to the proliferation of these heinous
16 materials;
17 ▸ describes the damages caused by child sexual abuse material; and
18 ▸ declares child sexual abuse material, no matter how it is produced, to be at odds
19 with the standards of the people of Utah.
20 Special Clauses:
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23 Be it resolved by the Legislature of the state of Utah, the Governor concurring therein:
24 WHEREAS, child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is any visual depiction of sexually
25 explicit conduct that involves the use of a minor in the production of its visuals;
26 WHEREAS, the exploitation of children to produce CSAM is a vile form of abuse that
27 can lead to severe and long-lasting psychological harm for the children involved;
28 WHEREAS, the production and distribution of CSAM on the internet has reached
29 epidemic levels, with millions of images produced every year that victimize the most
30 vulnerable members of our society;
31 WHEREAS, in 2018 alone, there were over 18 million reports of CSAM on the
32 internet, which totaled more than one-third of all such images ever reported;
33 WHEREAS, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has reported a
34 dramatic escalation in the proliferation of CSAM online over the past five years;
35 WHEREAS, this flood of abuse material has strained law enforcement's ability to
36 identify and prosecute the producers and consumers of these videos and images;
37 WHEREAS, an inability to counter the production and distribution of CSAM
38 contributes to a culture that normalizes the sexual abuse of minors and perpetuates cycles of
39 abuse;
40 WHEREAS, these cycles of abuse pose a significant risk to children's safety by creating
41 an environment where predators can more easily target vulnerable individuals for exploitation;
42 WHEREAS, CSAM also contributes to the desensitization towards sexual exploitation
43 and violence, potentially leading to an increase in related crimes;
44 WHEREAS, exposure to, or involvement in, CSAM can lead to distorted perceptions of
45 healthy sexuality and relationships, impacting the normal sexual development of both victims
46 and viewers;
47 WHEREAS, the advent of images produced by artificial intelligence, or AI, and other
48 digital tools has contributed to the rapid saturation of CSAM online;
49 WHEREAS, recent reports have found that images of child sexual abuse have been
50 identified as part of training datasets for AI image generation, and have likely been used by AI
51 to produce CSAM;
52 WHEREAS, AI and other digital tools are increasingly capable of creating CSAM
53 indistinguishable from CSAM produced using conventional methods; and
54 WHEREAS, it is increasingly clear that the advancing technology of AI is facilitating
55 and contributing to the overwhelming amount of CSAM on the internet:
56 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah, the
57 Governor concurring therein, declares child sexual abuse material, whether produced by
58 victimizing recognizable children or by utilizing AI or other digital tools to create composite
59 images, to be patently offensive and a clear violation of the standards of the people of Utah.
60 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah, the Governor
61 concurring therein, affirms that there is no literary, artistic, political, or scientific value to child
62 sexual abuse material, even if it is produced using AI or other digital tools.