Denmark's Top Court Rules AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Images Are Illegal

Denmark's Supreme Court has upheld an 18-month prison sentence for a 31-year-old man convicted of producing and distributing tens of thousands of AI-generated child sexual abuse images. In its ruling, the court made clear that such material is subject to Danish criminal law even when it is entirely synthetic and does not depict a real child.

The case is the first in Denmark to result in a conviction for creating and spreading AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery. The Supreme Court also established that, when determining sentences for possessing and distributing sexual material depicting people under 18, courts should not consider whether the figures in the images are fictional.

Court documents show the man used AI tools to create more than 36,000 realistic images and distributed them through websites and chat channels. He also sold access to some of the material through a subscription service, earning at least 25,000 Danish kroner (about $3,300). Police searched his home in late 2023, when he was 28. He admitted to making and sharing the images but argued that the relevant criminal provisions should not apply because the images were not based on real people.

A lower court sentenced him to 15 months in January 2025, with most of the term suspended, partly because there was no evidence the AI model had been trained on real child sexual abuse material. A higher court later increased the sentence to 18 months, citing the large number of images, the organized nature of the distribution, and the fact that some images were sold for profit. The Supreme Court confirmed that sentence.

The case also triggered an international police operation. Investigators identified 273 buyers from payment records and arrested 25 people worldwide.