Ohio digital reality posture profile
This page summarizes six tracked digital safety topics for Ohio, showing where public legislative coverage currently looks more proactive, more reactive, broader, or thinner. It is a structural posture signal based on public disclosures, not a political or legal grade.
Educational summary only
Not legal advice. Laws and enforcement change frequently. Verify current official statutes, regulations, and counsel where needed.
Overall state posture signal
Mixed posture with narrow tracked coverage.
Based on six tracked topics and public disclosures.
Posture meter
Lean and breadth across six tracked topics. Not a quality or political score.
Lean
Mixed posture
Breadth
Narrow tracked coverage
Ohio Synthetic Explicit Content law summary
Based on direct statute tracking.
Ohio makes it a crime to create or share a sexually explicit "fabricated" image of a real, recognizable person without their consent. The state's nonconsensual private-image law (Ohio Revised Code 2917.211) was expanded through House Bill 96, effective September 30, 2025, to cover deepfakes and other "created, adapted, or modified" images; the definition in Section 2307.66 reaches any image in which a person is recognizable by face or likeness while nude or engaged in a sexual act, which captures AI-generated and digitally altered content. Disseminating such an image, or creating or soliciting one to harass, extort, threaten, or harm, is a fourth-degree felony (third-degree with a prior conviction). On the child-protection side, Senate Bill 163 — which would specifically criminalize AI-generated child sexual abuse material — passed the Ohio Senate in May 2026 and is under consideration in the House, based on public records as of July 2026.
Educational summary only
Not legal advice. Laws and enforcement change frequently. Verify current official statutes, regulations, and counsel where needed.
Why this status
Based on direct statute tracking.
What this means
- Ohio Revised Code 2917.211, expanded by House Bill 96 effective September 30, 2025, specifically criminalizes disseminating or creating a "fabricated sexual image" — a created, adapted, or modified depiction of a recognizable real person — which reaches deepfakes and digitally altered intimate images.
What to do next
- Read the cited statute or bill text linked below to confirm the specifics for your state.
Citation-grade sources
Official sources
2Ohio Revised Code 2307.66 — Definition of 'fabricated sexual image'
Official textCitation: Defines 'fabricated sexual image' as a 'created, adapted, or modified image' depicting a recognizable person in a state of nudity or a sexual act; effective Sept. 30, 2025 via House Bill 96.
Observed: 2026-07-07Open sourceOhio Revised Code 2917.211 — Nonconsensual dissemination / fabricated sexual images
Official textCitation: Division (C) criminalizes knowingly disseminating a 'fabricated sexual image' without consent and (D) creating/soliciting one to harass or harm (F4, F3 with priors); amended by HB 96, effective Sept. 30, 2025.
Observed: 2026-07-07Open source
Context / secondary sources
1WKBN: Ohio Senate passes Bill 163 targeting AI child sexual abuse material, deepfakes
Discovery leadObserved: 2026-07-07Open source
Provenance
Source basis
Official/public links curated
Confidence
High confidence
Review scope
Review centered on currently tracked state-level law
Last reviewed
2026-07-07 · 7 July 2026
References
Ohio Revised Code 2307.66 — Definition of 'fabricated sexual image'
Ohio Revised Code 2917.211 — Nonconsensual dissemination / fabricated sexual images
WKBN: Ohio Senate passes Bill 163 targeting AI child sexual abuse material, deepfakes
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