Law / United States / Arkansas
Act 977 of 2025 (HB 1877), AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material Amendments
Ark. Code Ann. §§ 5-27-302, 5-27-304, 5-27-601 to 5-27-603, 5-27-609
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force.
An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What it requires
- Do not advertise, sell, distribute, possess, or view a computer-generated or otherwise AI-produced visual or print medium that an ordinary person would conclude depicts an actual child engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
- If you provide or develop an AI system and conduct adversarial testing in good faith to prevent, detect, or mitigate the risk of that system generating this material, that testing is exempt, but only if it is not for personal, exploitative, or unrelated purposes.
- This offense does not reach an interactive computer service for content supplied by another party.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
Electronic facilitation of child sexual abuse, which now reaches a computer-generated image indistinguishable from a real child, is a Class B felony.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Arkansas prosecuting attorneys, through ordinary criminal prosecution
What it reaches
Obligation class
Prohibition
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Act 977 amends the Arkansas Protection of Children Against Exploitation Act of 1979 and the state's computer-crimes-against-minors chapter to add "computer generated" (produced, adapted, or modified, in whole or in part, through artificial intelligence) alongside the existing categories of prohibited child sexual abuse material, and adds "indistinguishable," a visual or print medium that an ordinary person viewing it would conclude depicts an actual child, excluding a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting.
Electronic facilitation of child sexual abuse, which now reaches this computer-generated material, is a Class B felony under section 5-27-603; the felony class for the amended distributing, possessing, or viewing offense at section 5-27-602 is not stated in the text of this Act.
The Act carves out an interactive computer service for content supplied by another party, a law-enforcement investigation exemption, and a safe harbor for a provider or developer whose computer-generated material was produced through adversarial testing conducted in good faith to prevent, detect, or mitigate the risk of an AI system generating this material, so long as the testing was not for personal, exploitative, or unrelated purposes. Approved April 22, 2025.
When LexLint raises it
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