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.worldM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      20 days 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.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        20 days 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.worldM
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          20 days 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.

      • otp@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        20 days 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

      • Jake Farm@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        20 days ago

        Its a form of stalking, probably makes it more likely for them to rape that child, even if they don’t wind up doing that it would still qualify as a form of revenge porn.

            • Mango@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              20 days ago

              Commissioning as in buying? I’m not sure how that changes it to stalking.

              IMO, the worst part about it is that there’s someone else out there who thinks less of me because there’s some naked imagery of me.

              • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                20 days ago

                Commissioning as in a buyer has an interest in a particular child. They ask the guy using ai to make a custom bit of CSAM, so the buyer can have CSAM of that specific child.

                That kind of commissioning.

            • Mango@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              20 days ago

              I can buy photos of Robert Downey Junior from Marvel Studios and that’s not stalking.