Six months in prison

Viennese man produced thousands of child porn videos with AI

"I watched my first porn when I was ten," a Viennese man admitted in court.

(Bild: Harald Schume, Krone KREATIV)

A 43-year-old man from Vienna used artificial intelligence to produce thousands of virtual child porn videos. At the Eisenstadt Regional Court, he described himself as "unable to relate."

An incredible 86,327 files with child pornography content were found on the data carriers of a Viennese man, most of them created using artificial intelligence. It works roughly like this: You enter a text about what you would like to see, and the AI searches for an image to go with it. The accused man is not a computer expert.

Even as a teenager, I knew that things in life weren't feasible. So I became incapable of relationships.

Angeklagter vor Gericht

"I watched my first porn when I was ten years old," says the 43-year-old at Eisenstadt Regional Court. He is being tried there because he approached a girl in Deutschkreutz - the investigators then carried out a house search. "I already knew as a teenager that things in life weren't feasible. So I became unable to have relationships."

The Viennese turned the 25-minute trial into an hour of therapy. Fully confessing, he says in the monologue that he had asked for sex therapy, but unfortunately all the places were taken. "Before I become a real perpetrator ..."

Legal situation

According to criminal law expert Robert Kert from WU Vienna, "virtual pornography" also falls under §207a of the Criminal Code. These are depictions that have been produced completely artificially or by manipulating real images. Exception: Images created virtually for "personal use" that show minors of legal age are not punishable, provided the act does not involve any risk of dissemination.

He is allowed to say that the photos of the children "took him back to a time when I was still happy". And that the interrogation at the police station was a positive one. "There was no one else I could have talked to. I am very grateful to Vice for the way they dealt with me."

Appearing without a lawyer, the blameless man naturally accepts the sentence immediately: six months' conditional imprisonment. 720 euros fine, psychotherapy during the three-year probation period, probation assistance.