New AI child protection law, balloon release law take effect Aug. 1 - fox8live.com

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Hundreds of new laws emerged from the Louisiana legislative session that ended in June, and many of them take effect Aug. 1.

Act 892 prohibits the use of artificial intelligence to create child sexual abuse material.

The new law says that includes undeveloped film, videotape or data stored on a computer disk or by electronic means that are capable of conversion into a visual image.

New Orleans state Rep. Delisha Boyd co-authored the new AI protection law.

“AI is moving at a rate that is just like lightning. So this will prevent people from creating AI-generated images versus, I guess, some people think it’s safer than using actual children to have it created from an image of a child. So this law will protect our children from abusers being able to generate AI images of children and put them out on the Internet,” Boyd said.

More protections for children against AI were a top priority for Boyd during the session.

“And for me, it’s a small win. I also had HB 791 to hold people responsible for even communicating with children without their parents on those chatbots. So one step, you know, that’s how you run the race, one step at a time. So this was a huge win for us,” she said.

For many people, distinguishing AI-generated images from real ones is difficult.

“It is amazing how advanced AI is right now. We’re falsifying documents, falsifying pictures, falsifying videos, where to you and I, it will look like children in those videos and in those images when really they’re AI-generated. And either way, it should be a crime, and it should be punishable,” Boyd said.

Another new law drawing significant attention prohibits the release of 12 or more balloons.

Rep. John Illg, R-Jefferson, authored HB 851.

“What it does is prevent mass balloon releases like you would see at high school graduations, where you release hundreds of balloons. You know, the intentions are good. It’s a celebration, and then it comes down as litter. As you know, the city of New Orleans has battled power line outages from balloons in the past. I think this prevents that. It also prevents damage to our wildlife, to our fishing, to our waterways,” Illg said.

There are exceptions to the new law. It does not apply to children younger than 17 or to the release of balloons indoors.

“No, we’re not looking to get a kid leaving a birthday party and a balloon gets away from him. We’re not looking to prosecute on that. That’s why we have some leeway up to a dozen balloons,” Illg said.

“We’re looking for the high school graduations, the memorial ceremonies, where you’re releasing hundreds of balloons. While the intention may be good, the damage environmentally that gets done is too great.”

The new balloon law includes fines.

“And the fines are $500 on the first offense or eight hours picking up trash. I think if you go pick up trash for eight hours... in this heat, you’d probably not want to commit that crime again,” Illg said.

Another new law bars retailers from imposing surcharges on customers who pay with a debit card instead of cash.

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