New York digital reality posture profile

New York Synthetic Explicit Content law summary

In New York, it is a crime to share a sexually explicit image of a real person that was made or altered by AI or other digital means without their consent — the law reaches "deepfakes" that never involved a real photograph, not only leaked real pictures. That protection comes from a 2023 amendment to Penal Law § 245.15 (S1042A, Chapter 513, signed September 29, 2023 and effective in late 2023), which defines "digitization" as altering an image in a realistic manner using someone else's likeness or computer-generated images; violations carry up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine, alongside a separate civil right to sue for sexually explicit deepfakes. A dedicated bill to criminalize AI-generated child sexual abuse material — the "Digital Alterations Protections Act" (S3202) — remains in committee as of early 2026, so that specific piece is not yet enacted. Based on public records as of July 2026.