Legislature 2026: Will lawmakers build upon new ‘AI child pornography’ law?

By Matthew Young, RealWV

With respect to protecting minors from sexual exploitation, the recent efforts of West Virginia’s Legislature are as confusing as they are contentious, and have on occasion appeared contradictory to their desired results.

Passed during the 2025 Legislative Session and signed into law the following April, SB 198 effectively expanded the definition of “child pornography” to include digitally-created images and depictions of minors engaged in illicit sexual acts, regardless of whether an actual person was filmed. Introduced by Senate Education Chair Amy Grady, R-Mason – and passed by both houses of the legislature with unanimous, bipartisan support – SB 198 established fines and penalties of up to $20,000 and from one to 10-years imprisonment for anyone found guilty of participation is this expanded definition. 

As stated within the text of SB 198, “The Legislature finds that criminalizing the production and creation of artificial intelligence generated child pornography is the most effective means of protecting West Virginia children.”

In their quest to protect the state’s minors from pornographic-exploitation, West Virginia lawmakers went a step beyond simply safeguarding against the act itself. At its core, SB 198 provided an added layer of defense against the mere idea of exploiting minors in such a way. 

Though different in both scope and effect, SB 198 would seem to be a successor of sorts to 2023’s HB 3018, otherwise known as West Virginia’s “Child Marriage Law.”

Introduced by Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, and co-sponsored by a bipartisan coalition of delegates, HB 3018 was intended to establish 18 as the minimum age to marry within West Virginia. Prior to the bill’s passage (albeit in a significantly less-restrictive form), the state imposed no age restrictions for marriage. 

While those in favor of the introduced version of HB 3018 argued that it would fully eliminate one avenue of child exploitation – particularly the exploitation of female children – the eventual-amended version of the bill offered only limitations. In what would seem to be an example of “two steps forward and one step back,” when HB 3018 was made law shortly after its passage by the legislature, West Virginia’s new minimum marital-age was set at 16, not 18. 

Between February and March of this year, both West Virginia’s House of Delegates and State Senate saw legislation introduced that sought to limit the ability of minors to access online pornography. Introduced by Senate Government Organization Chair Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson – and along with its House counterpart introduced by Del. Gino Chiarelli, R-Monongalia – the “Protecting Kids From Porn Act” proposed that pornographic websites available within West Virginia be required to utilize enhanced age-verification methods. And though both bills stalled in their houses respective Judiciary Committees, similar to SB 198, these bills would appear to be adjacent to legislation which had also stalled the previous year. 

Introduced by now former Del. Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, HB 4654, had it been enacted, would have criminalized schools, public libraries, and museums that made available to minors any material that it deemed “obscene.” Coincidentally, when the bill stalled, it also did so in the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

The motivations behind the introduction of HB 4654 were ill-defined by its sponsor. And while no specific examples of what was considered “obscene” material were provided, committee meetings, chamber floor debate, and the one scheduled public hearing paid particular attention to material depicting or describing homosexual and transgendered individuals. Opponents of the bill argued that it was nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to malign a vulnerable demographic of West Virginia’s children, while advocates claimed the opposite was its purpose. 

Although neither explicitly stated or casually referenced by sponsors of any of the bills discussed in this reporting, information released one year prior to the introduction of HB 4654, and the same year as HB 3018, by the largest online pornography-aggregate in the United States, revealed that “trans” pornography was the most frequently searched by West Virginians in 2022. However, no demographic information, such as age or gender of the online searchers, was released, and searches for “trans” pornography were replaced by a new top result in 2023. 

While there is not yet enough data accumulated to accurately determine if the efforts of state lawmakers – be they through new laws or failed legislation – are achieving their intended results, West Virginians do appear to be consuming less online pornography. According to an August, 2025 report from lifestyle-magazine Mandatory, West Virginia is among the “least engaged” states with regard to the viewing of online pornography. 

The West Virginia Legislature will begin their 2026 Regular Session on Wednesday, Jan. 14. It remains to be seen if lawmakers will once again choose to approach these controversial topics. However, RealWV will provide continual updates should new information be made available.