The Council of the European Union and the European Parliament announced on Thursday that they have reached an agreement to prohibit AI services in the EU that generate fake sexual or intimate content, or materials depicting sexual abuse of children.
According to the Brussels statement, the co-legislators aim to both simplify compliance for providers with the forthcoming EU AI regulation and to preserve the regulation’s core provisions and its risk-based approach.
What does the agreement ban?
The agreement adds a specific EU-wide prohibition to the regulation, which explicitly covers:
- creation of images, videos and audio that depict sexual abuse of children (child sexual abuse material),
- generation of artificial content that “undresses” identifiable persons, i.e. produces non-consensual nude images or videos of identifiable individuals,
- generation of depictions showing people engaged in sexual activity without their consent.
The press release does not provide the full legal text or a detailed timetable for implementation. Nevertheless, the decision clearly extends prohibitions to AI services that can be used to produce non-consensual or child-related sexual material.
Why it matters
The move is intended to protect individuals and prevent the spread of harmful, illegal or morally objectionable AI-generated content. At the same time, the agreement stresses enforceability: it was designed to make it easier for providers to comply with the EU regulation while maintaining a risk-based regulatory framework.
More broadly, EU regulation efforts seek to balance technological innovation with mitigation of the harms posed by artificial intelligence. Thursday’s announcement represents a significant step on matters of personal rights and child protection within that broader regulatory agenda.
