On June 17, Colorado’s highest court confronted a question straight out of a dystopian nightmare: before lawmakers outlawed AI-generated child pornography this spring under SB 25-288, could prosecutors even charge someone who used deep-fake technology to paste a real child’s face onto an explicit image? During oral arguments, Chief Justice Monica Márquez noted that pre-2025 law already banned “wrongful invasion” of a child’s privacy by sexual exploitation—so why wasn’t that enough to convict a digital predator? Prosecutors begged for a legislative fix, defense lawyers wagged their fingers at judicial overreach, and victims’ rights advocates watched as a legal loophole hung like a guillotine over every child in Colorado .
Let me be blunt: AI-generated child porn is a moral and legal abomination, and any court that punts rather than slaps it with the full weight of the law is complicit in the crime. I believe child pornography should be a capital offense. But that’s just me. We’re supposed to revere the First Amendment, but no “speech” right can justify manufacturing images of minors in sexual acts—real or simulated. If you wouldn’t tolerate a kid in pornographic film footage, you shouldn’t blink at an AI paste-job. Yet here we are, debating whether we need new laws to ban what should’ve been instinctively criminal under existing statutes.
I’m a First Amendment zealot—“shall not be infringed” applies to speech as fiercely as it does to firearms—but let’s not let that noble principle be hijacked by screen-scraping sadists. Pornography, especially AI-enabled child porn, isn’t “expression.” It’s exploitation. According to FHE Health, 84 percent of Americans agree that child pornography should be illegal in all forms (fherehab.com). (And just who the hell are the other 16%?!) Yet until SB 25-288 closed the loophole, Colorado’s statutes treated deep-fakes as some halfway house between art and assault. That’s not interpretation; it’s intellectual malpractice.
Meanwhile, adult pornography, long protected as free speech, carries its own epidemic of collateral damage. About 58 percent of Americans report having watched porn at least once, with 11 percent tuning in daily (fherehab.com). A UK study even had trouble finding non-addicted teens because “excessive” consumption is so widespread it’s become the norm (addictionhelp.com). If that doesn’t alarm you, consider that marriages where one spouse frequently uses porn are two to three times more likely to end in divorce within two years (sciencedirect.com). Is that “free speech,” or a public-health crisis?
You may have read me talk about how I believe there are two parties: Not Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal. There is the Party of Flourishing and the Party of Destruction. The Party of Flourishing asks, “Does this lead to human flourishing?” The Party of Destruction shrugs and says, “Whatever sells clicks.”
Make no mistake: Pornography destroys intimacy, warps expectations, and turns consenting adults into pixelated voyeurs. When AI makes images more lifelike, that damage multiplies. It’s not “just a few clicks”; it’s a rewiring of the brain’s reward circuits, a turbo-charged dopamine rush that leaves real relationships in the dust (nypost.com). Hmmm, I wonder why America’s birth rate is in the tank?!
We must confront adult porn’s ruinous side. When 69 percent of men and 40 percent of women view porn annually (addictionhelp.com) (and they likely weren’t honest when they took the survey), it’s not fringe—it’s mainstream. And with virtual reality and AI on the horizon, that mainstream is about to go nuclear. We’re handing our kids a digital crack pipe and wondering why they can’t concentrate on school, work, or real love.
Here are some suggestions for the Party of Flourishing:
- Court Accountability: Demand judges apply “wrongful invasion” to every pixel-smeared atrocity. No more excuses.
- Legislative Clarity: Close all loopholes—real or digital—under child-exploitation laws. One definition: if it shows a minor in sexual content, it’s child porn. Period.
- Public-Health Response: Treat adult porn addiction like any other substance crisis. Fund counseling, education, and rehab before it obliterates another family.
- Civil Standards: Recognize that free speech isn’t a license for degradation. Let consenting adults choose—but don’t pretend it’s harmless when it erodes intimacy and fuels mental-health breakdowns.
Speech deserves iron-clad protection, but not at the expense of our children or our communal well-being. If you believe in real liberty—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—then you have to draw the line at exploitation. Whether it’s AI deep-fakes or subscription-based fetish feeds, pornography that degrades or endangers must face zero tolerance. Anything less is surrendering our moral compass to the algorithms.
So, call your representatives and vote for leaders who won’t let “unique” technology become a safe harbor for predators. Because the First Amendment didn’t create a free-for-all; it carved out space for debate, worship, and dissent—not depravity. And if we don’t draw that line now, we’ll look back and wonder why we ever let tech bulldoze our humanity.
