Swiss court fines man over AI-generated child pornography

A man in Basel-Landschaft has been given a suspended monetary penalty after possessing more than 500 child sexual abuse images generated with artificial intelligence, SRF reported on Monday.

The files were found on the hard drive of his computer and in the storage of his mobile phone after Basel-Landschaft authorities received a tip from a foreign agency. The images included cartoons and realistic-looking depictions of girls, but none showed real children.

Switzerland nevertheless bans sexual depictions of minors, whether they are real or artificially created. A judge at the Basel-Landschaft criminal court said that legal position had been clear since 2014.

The man, who is now 31, admitted possessing the files. He said he had believed this was legal because the children depicted were not real. He also told the court that he had been interested in related comics and manga since his youth.

The court imposed a suspended monetary penalty of 60 daily rates of 30 Swiss francs each. The number of daily rates reflects the seriousness of the offence, while their value is based on the offender’s financial circumstances. The penalty could be enforced if he commits another offence and is caught during the probation period. He must also pay around 6,500 francs in legal costs.

The prosecution had additionally sought a fine of 1,200 francs and a preventive ban on working with young people, for example as a coach or teacher. The judge rejected the ban, saying there were no indications that the man was paedophilic.

Lower penalty for artificial images

Swiss law distinguishes between real depictions and images based on non-existent acts involving minors, according to Sabine Gless, a criminal law professor at the University of Basel. Possessing or distributing AI-generated images carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison, compared with up to three years for real images.

AI-generated images receive a lower maximum penalty because lawmakers assume that no child was harmed in their production. However, the conduct is still punishable because lawmakers want to prevent any child pornography from circulating. The ban also covers other depictions, including drawings, although drawing the line can be difficult in the case of art.

Gless described the criminalisation of AI-generated child pornography as a way to ease the burden of proof. Without it, suspects could avoid punishment by simply claiming that images were virtual. Proving that such images showed real minors would be difficult for investigators, particularly when material was produced abroad.

In 2025, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court ruled that a pornographic film featuring an adult performer who was digitally altered to appear younger than 18 constituted punishable simulated child pornography. Gless said lawmakers needed to clarify what the growing use of AI makes permissible and what remains prohibited.

Warnings over demand for AI images

Swiss child protection organisations expect more convictions involving AI-generated child pornography and warn against playing down the offence. Regula Bernhard, the organisation’s director, said AI programmes were trained using real images of children. There was therefore no clean material in the paedocriminal market, she said.

Bernhard said the black market responded to demand, meaning that anyone who consumed such material increased demand and encouraged further production. It was becoming increasingly difficult to determine whether an image had been generated by AI or showed a real event, she said.

She also criticised the motivation behind such images, saying they degrade minors by turning them into sexual objects. The more such images circulated, she said, the more they would be normalised, increasing the danger to children if no action was taken.

The prevalence of offences involving AI-generated child pornography is difficult to estimate. The Basel-Landschaft prosecutor’s office does not record them separately. Basel’s cantonal crime statistics also do not yet distinguish between pornographic deepfakes and other AI-generated sexual content.

The federal government does not require separate reporting, according to the Basel government. Basel’s cantonal police recorded two cases of AI-assisted image manipulation with a sexual context in 2025 and 2026. Since the start of this year, it has recorded a new category called image-based sexual violence, which also includes revenge pornography and deepfakes.