A Texas lawmaker wants to prohibit minors from accessing artificial intelligence tools that generate sexually explicit images and videos.
The proposal is part of a four-bill package Rep. Mary González (D) pre-filed for the 2025 session in an effort to combat nonconsensual pornographic deepfakes.
It is a growing issue in schools across the country, as students use generative AI tools to create intimate images of classmates, including in Texas. In a recent national survey, 15% of students reported being aware of sexually explicit or intimate deepfakes being shared at school.
“There have been very real harms to youth,” González said in an interview. “That’s why we can’t ignore that some of these tools are targeting young people and therefore should have some guardrails.”
Non-consenting adults and celebrities including Taylor Swift have also been victimized.
Texas is among nearly two dozen states that have already passed laws regulating nonconsensual pornographic deepfakes.
These bills would go further and place obligations on AI image generators to police their sites.
Besides verifying users’ ages, under the first bill companies would have to ensure the person whose image is being uploaded to the site is at least 18 and has consented. Explicit images of minors would be prohibited.
Under the second bill, victims of unauthorized images would have the right to sue deep fake generator sites for violations. The third would require school principals to formally investigate sexual deep fakes created or spread by students and to provide support for victims. The fourth would update Texas’s existing ban on nonconsensual AI-generated intimate videos to also include still images.
If enacted, Texas would likely be the first state to require proof of age to access pornographic AI image generating sites.
The age verification requirement borrows from an existing Texas law that requires pornographic sites to ensure that users are 18 or older. That 2023 law is currently under legal challenge in a case that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Opponents argue that requiring adults to prove their age to access sexually explicit sites infringes on their First Amendment rights. Eighteen other states have similar laws, according to tracking by the Age Verification Providers Association.
“Age verification technologies are often inaccurate, making them an ineffective — and legally suspect — method to address the nonconsensual distribution of deepfakes,” said Becca Branum, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Free Expression Project.
Instead, Branum called on state legislators to empower victims to sue for damages.
González said she did not model her legislation on the porn site law but acknowledged that age verification is “an extra step that is burdensome.” She said she sees her proposal as “a catalyst for conversation” in the Republican-controlled legislature.
“I am not an AI expert. What I am is a child advocate in the legislature. And what I do know is something must be done,” said González, who serves as treasurer of Texas’s bipartisan Innovation & Technology Caucus and led efforts nearly a decade ago to pass Texas’s revenge porn law.
Separate legislation from Texas Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R), chair of the IT Caucus, would bar AI image generators from producing sexually explicit content depicting children.