AI-generated images featuring the sexual abuse of children are regularly being posted on a website run by an Osaka-based IT company, it has been learned.
The Yomiuri Shimbun found that more than 3,000 such images — deemed to be virtually indistinguishable from real-world images of sexualized child abuse — are being uploaded to the globally accessible site each month.
Sexual images of children created by generative artificial intelligence models are not covered by Japanese laws.
The website in question — one of a number of similar Japan-hosted domains — is operated by an Osaka Prefecture-based IT company, which allows users to post and purchase AI-generated child-abuse imagery.
According to the company, the website has 100,000 registered users and receives over 2 million hits each month.
The Yomiuri Shimbun randomly selected 400 of the website’s 3,727 pages during a four-week period to mid-August.
The images were checked under the supervision of Hisashi Sonoda, a professor emeritus of Konan University and an expert on the Penal Code and issues relating to child pornography.
The selected pages included some 2,679 graphics. Of these, 1,040, or 39% — excluding illustrations — were thought to be virtually indistinguishable from real-world imagery, with 385 images, or 14%, depicting sexual images of children, each of which was tagged with a “created by generative AI” disclaimer.
It is estimated that more than 3,000 child-porn images are posted to the website each month.
In Japan, the law against child prostitution and child pornography prohibits the production and publication of sexual imagery involving children. Computer-generated creations, however, are only deemed illegal when they intentionally depict lifelike images that show specific real-world children being sexually abused.
Meanwhile, in the United States and other countries, any type of computer-generated imagery featuring the sexual brutalization of children is banned.
According to Sonoda, the images hosted on the Japan website “would highly likely be considered illegal in countries in Europe and North America.”
In response to a Yomiuri Shimbun inquiry, the website’s operating company said, “We don’t believe there are any legal problems.”
Meanwhile, the National Police Agency said, “We intend to carefully monitor the situation in the future.”
