Legislature 2026: Will lawmakers build upon new ‘AI child pornography’ law?

[Jim Burton]

https://therealwv.com/2025/12/30/legisl ... raphy-law/

With respect to protecting minors from sexual exploitation, the recent efforts of West Virginia’s Legislature are as confusing as they are contentious, and have on occasion appeared contradictory to their desired results.

Passed during the 2025 Legislative Session and signed into law the following April, SB 198 effectively expanded the definition of “child pornography” to include digitally-created images and depictions of minors engaged in illicit sexual acts, regardless of whether an actual person was filmed. Introduced by Senate Education Chair Amy Grady, R-Mason – and passed by both houses of the legislature with unanimous, bipartisan support – SB 198 established fines and penalties of up to $20,000 and from one to 10-years imprisonment for anyone found guilty of participation is this expanded definition.

As stated within the text of SB 198, “The Legislature finds that criminalizing the production and creation of artificial intelligence generated child pornography is the most effective means of protecting West Virginia children.”

In their quest to protect the state’s minors from pornographic-exploitation, West Virginia lawmakers went a step beyond simply safeguarding against the act itself. At its core, SB 198 provided an added layer of defense against the mere idea of exploiting minors in such a way.

Though different in both scope and effect, SB 198 would seem to be a successor of sorts to 2023’s HB 3018, otherwise known as West Virginia’s “Child Marriage Law.”