Hugh Nelson, 27, from Bolton, jailed after transforming normal pictures of children into sexual abuse imagery

Hugh Nelson, 27, from Bolton, jailed after transforming normal pictures of children into sexual abuse imagery

A man who used AI to create child abuse images using photographs of real children has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.

In the first prosecution of its kind in the UK, Hugh Nelson, 27, from Bolton, was convicted of 16 child sexual abuse offences in August, after an investigation by Greater Manchester police (GMP).

Nelson had used Daz 3D, a computer programme with an AI function, to transform “normal” images of children into sexual abuse imagery, Greater Manchester police said. In some cases, paedophiles had commissioned the images, supplying photographs of children with whom they had contact in real life.

He was also found guilty of encouraging other offenders to commit rape.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    316·
    2 months ago

    I agree, but if there were some way to create CSAM without using real children (I’m not sure how you would train such an AI model), it would probably be worth seeing if that did anything to make pedophiles less likely to act out on their desires.

    Because my god, we need to figure out something.

    • Zorque@lemmy.worldEnglish
      211·
      2 months ago

      I mean trying to help them get treatment instead of going all pod-people on anyone showing even the possibility of being attracted to kids would be helpful.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
        264·
        2 months ago

        I’ve been saying that for ages. Obviously we don’t want to enable any pedophiles to do anything horrific to children, but we’re at a state right now where if you have those urges to begin with, you’re basically already told to accept that you’re an incurable monster. So why not act on the urges?

        Somehow we need to get through to such people that they need to get help before they do anything terrible. I’m not sure how to do that in the current climate though.

    • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      The way AI models work, you don’t have to train it on the thing you want it to do, you can ask it to combine the things it knows about. Take any of the meme loras for example, like pepe punch or patcha.

      So literally any model that can generate pictures of naked adults and clothed children - which is to say almost all of them - is going to be at least somewhat competent in creating CP unless those prompts are being actively censored and blocked.

      • DanquebecEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        Wouldn’t that generate images of children with small-sized adult bodies?

        If it doesn’t know what a child’s body looks like, it can’t just figure it out.

        • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          The datasets will have enough images of kids in bikinis and underwear from stock photos and clothes shop listings etc to figure that part out rather easily.

    • otpEnglish
      72·
      2 months ago

      Train it to depict humans that look like anime characters that are definitely 18 or older immortal dragons that are taking on the bodies of young human beings

      Disclaimer

      I am not condoning, endorsing, or suggesting this

        • Organichedgehog@lemmy.worldEnglish
          34·
          2 months ago

          “it would probably be worth seeing if that did anything to make pedophiles less likely to act out on their desires.”

          What’s the implication here? You’re saying we should look into placating child predators by creating AI CP for them to consume?