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Law / United States / Montana

Sexual abuse of children, computer-generated child pornography

Mont. Code Ann. 45-5-625

In force since .

An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.

Obligation class
Prohibition
Audit expectation
none
Setting the rule reaches
General

What it requires

  • Do not knowingly possess, process, develop, print, publish, transport, distribute, sell, exhibit, or advertise computer-generated child pornography or any other visual or print medium depicting a child engaged in actual or simulated sexual conduct
  • Computer-generated child pornography includes an altered image of an actual minor, an adult altered to appear as a minor, or a depiction virtually indistinguishable from an actual minor engaged in prohibited sexual conduct
  • It is not a defense that the perceived child is an adult or a law enforcement officer

These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.

In the frameworks

NIST AI RMF
  • MAP 3.3Targeted application scope is specified and documented based on the system’s capability, established context, and AI system categorization.
NIST AI 600-1
MIT mitigations Draft
  • 1.5Safety Decision Frameworks
  • 3.3Access Management
FINOS AIGF
ETSI EN 304 223
  • 5.1.2-1Business need and security risks written down and assessed before deciding to build an AI system.
  • 5.1.4-5End-users told which uses of the system are prohibited.

Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law

Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.

If you get it wrong

Criminal exposureYes

Criminal exposure note

A general conviction carries life imprisonment or up to 100 years and a fine up to $10,000; a possession-only conviction under subsection (1)(e) carries a fine up to $10,000 or up to 10 years imprisonment, or both; where the victim is 12 or younger and the offender is 18 or older, the offender faces a mandatory 100-year term with the first 25 years neither suspendable nor parole-eligible, plus a fine up to $50,000.

Penalty structure

General offense: fine up to $10,000, plus life imprisonment or up to 100 years. Possession alone (subsection (1)(e)): fine up to $10,000 or up to 10 years imprisonment, or both. Aggravated tier, victim 12 or younger and offender 18 or older: mandatory 100-year term (first 25 years neither suspendable nor parole-eligible), fine up to $50,000, and lifetime supervision after release.

Rule
Fixed only
As of
Currency
USD
Fixed cap
50,000

What it makes you log

Logging duty

Section 45-5-625 defines computer-generated child pornography and states the elements of the possession, distribution, and related offenses. It imposes no duty on anyone to log, record, or otherwise document anything. Two paragraphs of the same section criminalize travel within, from, or to Montana to meet a child for a prohibited purpose, but that territorial language belongs to the travel offense and is not part of what the computer-generated-pornography paragraphs themselves state.

Kind
None
As of

What this law does

Drafted with AI

Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page. How this site is made

Research summary

Legal information, not legal advice. This is LexLint's own research summary of a public legal source, and it creates no attorney-client relationship. For decisions that matter, consult qualified counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. About LexLint

The sexual abuse of children statute makes it an offense to knowingly possess, process, develop, print, publish, transport, distribute, sell, exhibit, or advertise a visual or print medium in which a child is engaged in actual or simulated sexual conduct, and its possession offense expressly reaches computer-generated child pornography.

That term covers a depiction of an actual minor created, adapted, or modified to portray the minor engaged in prohibited sexual conduct, a depiction of an actual adult altered to portray the adult as a minor engaged in such conduct, or a depiction that is virtually indistinguishable from an actual minor engaged in such conduct, so an entirely synthetic, AI-generated image falls within the offense on the same terms as a photograph.

A general conviction carries life imprisonment or up to 100 years and a fine up to $10,000; a conviction resting solely on possession of the prohibited material carries a fine up to $10,000 or up to 10 years imprisonment, or both; and where the victim is 12 years of age or younger and the offender is 18 or older, the offender faces a mandatory 100-year term, with the first 25 years neither suspendable nor parole-eligible, a fine up to $50,000, and lifetime supervision after release.

The computer-generated child pornography language, including the clause reaching an image indistinguishable from an actual minor created by artificial intelligence, was added by Chapter 102, Laws of Montana 2025 (House Bill 82), effective under that Act's own effective-date section; the surrounding offense itself dates to 1979.

When LexLint raises it

When your app profile says your app generates images with AI, generates video with AI or publishes adult content.

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