2026年8月29日 美国东部时间早上6:00 / 福克斯新闻频道
第七巡回上诉法院维持驳回对一名拥有数百张AI生成图像的威斯康星州男子的持有罪名指控
作者：伊莱恩·马伦 福克斯新闻
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一家联邦上诉法院表示，数十年前的最高法院先例迫使它保护人们在家中拥有AI生成的儿童性虐待材料，法官们警告称，技术的快速进步让近25年前划定的法律界限变得复杂。
该判决暴露了最高法院先例与快速发展的人工智能之间日益扩大的差距。第七巡回上诉法院表示，它受到2002年最高法院一项裁决的约束，该裁决拒绝限制在未涉及真实儿童参与制作的情况下出现的虚构儿童露骨性描写内容。但两名法官警告称，如今的现代AI可以生成几乎与描绘真实儿童虐待内容难以区分的图像。
“事实上，在‘言论自由联盟案’中，最高法院曾涉及虚拟儿童性虐待材料受第一修正案保护的范围，但那已是近25年前的事了，当时可用的图像生成技术在当时可能是无法想象的，”约翰·李法官写道。“鉴于人工智能模型的持续进步，我们对这类案件划定的界限存在一些担忧，但我们无权自行重新划定。”
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人类正使用笔记本电脑和计算机与人工智能互动，借助尖端快速技术帮助他们创建、编码、训练AI或分析大数据。(Getty Images/Wanan Yossingkum)
第七巡回上诉法院维持了下级法院对史蒂文·安德雷格四项指控中一项的驳回裁定。调查人员称，在从他威斯康星州家中查获的设备中，发现了数百张AI生成的描绘儿童的露骨色情图像。
安德雷格被指控制作和传播AI生成的此类材料、向16岁以下未成年人传输该材料以及持有该材料。一家联邦地区法院仅以第一修正案为由驳回了持有罪名指控，其余三项指控仍有效。
美国司法部对该驳回裁定提起上诉，辩称即便未涉及真实儿童参与制作，政府也应被允许禁止持有淫秽的虚拟儿童性虐待材料。但第七巡回上诉法院支持了下级法院的裁定。
通常情况下，政府不能将私人在住宅内持有淫秽材料定为刑事犯罪，但可以禁止持有涉及真实儿童的儿童性虐待材料，因为这类材料的制作会剥削真实受害者。
然而，最高法院在2002年的一项裁决中让这一区分变得复杂，当时该法院废除了对未使用真实未成年人制作的虚构儿童露色情像的限制。大法官们的理由是，在未涉及真实儿童的情况下，政府保护儿童免受剥削的压倒性利益并不适用。
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美国前进促进会高级研究员汉斯·冯·斯帕科夫斯基告诉福克斯新闻数字频道，鉴于最高法院的裁决，上诉法院“别无选择，只能依据第一修正案维持驳回裁定”。
但冯·斯帕科夫斯基同意李法官和约书亚·科拉尔法官的协同意见，这两位法官警告最高法院，人工智能技术的快速发展可能要求大法官们重新审视此前的先例。
“不幸的是，AI生成的图像如今几乎与真实内容难以区分，其中一些图像可能基于真实的儿童性虐待材料生成，”冯·斯帕科夫斯基说道。“技术可能已经超越并颠覆了此前裁决中使用的推理逻辑。”
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最高法院此前在“言论自由联盟案”中裁定，拍摄真实儿童并将其“变形”为露骨色情姿势的行为，不受其关于虚构儿童性虐待材料持有案裁决的保护，因为这种行为涉及真实儿童的利益。
司法部律师曾警告称，AI生成的儿童性虐待材料的兴起可能会阻碍调查人员识别真实受害者的工作，因为越来越逼真的人工图像越来越难以与真实虐待描绘内容区分开来。
美国最高法院大法官克拉伦斯·托马斯于2026年4月15日在德克萨斯大学霍格纪念礼堂举行的庆祝《独立宣言》签署250周年特别讲座上发言。(杰伊·詹纳/《奥斯汀美国人报》通过盖蒂图片社拍摄)
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李法官和科拉尔法官在协同意见中提出了另一个担忧，援引一项研究称，用于训练图像生成AI的主要数据集中存在数百张儿童性虐待材料图像。两位法官暗示，这可能会在AI生成材料与真实儿童的剥削之间建立联系，但他们强调，政府在本案中并未提出这一问题，且案卷记录不足以解决这一问题。
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克拉伦斯·托马斯大法官在20多年前就预见到了这一困境，他在最高法院2002年的裁决中警告称，技术进步最终可能会让虚拟描绘内容与涉及真实受害者的儿童性虐待材料难以区分。
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“如果技术进步阻碍了对‘非法言论’的起诉，政府很可能有令人信服的利益去禁止或以其他方式监管某些狭义类别的‘合法言论’，以执行针对通过虐待真实儿童制作的材料的法律，”托马斯写道。
伊莱恩·马伦是福克斯新闻数字频道和福克斯商业频道的记者，报道全国政治新闻。
Appeals court delivers unsettling ruling — and says Supreme Court left it no choice
August 29, 2026 6:00am EDT / Fox News
The Seventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of a possession charge against a Wisconsin man with hundreds of AI-generated images
By Elaine Mallon, Fox News
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A federal appeals court says decades-old Supreme Court precedent forced it to protect the in-home possession of AI-generated child sexual abuse material, as judges warned that rapidly advancing technology has complicated legal lines drawn nearly 25 years ago.
The ruling exposes a widening gap between Supreme Court precedent and rapidly advancing artificial intelligence. The Seventh Circuit said it was bound by a 2002 Supreme Court decision that rejected restrictions on sexually explicit depictions of fictional children when no actual child was involved in their creation. But two judges warned that modern AI can now generate images virtually indistinguishable from material depicting the abuse of real children.
“Indeed, in Free Speech Coalition, the Supreme Court addressed the scope of First Amendment protections for virtual CSAM, but that was nearly twenty-five years ago, and the image-generation technology available today was likely unimaginable back then,” Judge John Lee wrote. “Given the relentless advancement in artificial intelligence models, we have some concerns about the lines these cases draw, but we are not free to redraw them ourselves.”
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Humans are using laptops and computers to interact with AI, helping them create, code, train AI, or analyze big data with fast, cutting-edge technology.(Getty Images/Wanan Yossingkum)
The Seventh Circuit affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of one of four charges against Steven Anderegg, who investigators said had hundreds of AI-generated sexually explicit images depicting children on devices seized from his Wisconsin home.
Anderegg was charged with producing and distributing the AI-generated material, transferring it to a minor under 16, and possessing it. A federal district court dismissed only the possession charge on First Amendment grounds, leaving the other three charges intact.
The Justice Department appealed that dismissal, arguing that the government should be permitted to prohibit possession of obscene virtual child sexual abuse material even when no actual child was involved in its creation. But the Seventh Circuit sided with the lower court.
The government generally cannot criminalize the private possession of obscene material inside someone’s home, but it can prohibit possession of child sexual abuse material involving real children because its creation exploits actual victims.
However, the Supreme Court complicated that distinction in 2002 when it struck down restrictions covering sexually explicit images of fictional children created without using actual minors. The justices reasoned that the government’s overriding interest in protecting children from exploitation did not apply in the same way when no real child was involved.
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Justices of the US Supreme Court pose for their official photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on October 7, 2022.(OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
Hans von Spakovsky, a senior fellow with Advancing American Freedom, told Fox News Digital that the appeals court “had no choice but to uphold the dismissal under the First Amendment” because of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
But von Spakovsky agreed with the concurrence by Lee and Judge Joshua Kolar, who warned the Supreme Court that the rapid growth of AI technology could require the justices to revisit precedent.
“Unforunately, AI-generated images are now virtualy indistinguishable from the real thing and some of these images be created based on real child sexual abuse material,” von Spavosky said. “Technology may have overtaken and overwhelmed the reasoning used in those prior decisions.”
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The Supreme Court previously ruled in Free Speech Coalition that taking images of real children and “morphing” them into sexually explicit poses would not be protected under its ruling on the possession of child sexual abuse material depicting fictional children because the practice involves the interests of real children.
Justice Department lawyers have warned that the rise of AI-generated child sexual abuse material could bog down investigators trying to identify real victims, as increasingly realistic artificial images become harder to distinguish from depictions of actual abuse.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks during a special lecture celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence at Hogg Memorial Auditorium at the University of Texas on April 15, 2026.(Jay Janner/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images))
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Judges Lee and Kolar raised another concern in their concurrence, citing research that found hundreds of child sexual abuse material images in a major dataset used to train image-generating AI. The judges suggested that could create a link between AI-generated material and the exploitation of real children, though they stressed that the government did not raise the issue in this case and that the record was insufficient to resolve it.
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Justice Clarence Thomas anticipated the dilemma more than two decades ago, warning in the Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling that advancing technology could eventually make virtual depictions indistinguishable from child sexual abuse material involving real victims.
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“If technological advances thwart prosecution of ‘unlawful speech,’ the Government may well have a compelling interest in barring or otherwise regulating some narrow category of ‘lawful speech’” to enforce laws against material produced through the abuse of real children, Thomas wrote.
Elaine Mallon is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business covering national politics.
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