A Tasmanian court has warned that AI-generated child abuse material creates a “special need” for tough sentencing, dismissing an appeal from a young man caught with hundreds of illegal images and videos.
Po Finn Nathan Hammer, 24, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in May last year after pleading guilty to possessing child abuse material obtained through a carriage service.
He must serve 12 months before being released on a $2,000 recognisance and was also placed on the Community Protection Register for two years.
Hammer appealed the sentence, arguing it was manifestly excessive. The Supreme Court of Tasmania Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the appeal on April 23.
Police found 212 images and six videos on Hammer’s laptop when they searched his home in December 2023.
Some of the images were anime, while others were generated by artificial intelligence.
The court heard it was not possible to determine whether real children had been used to create the AI-generated images.
Justice Michael Brett, delivering the lead judgment, said AI-generated material posed serious problems for the courts.
“… The difficulty, or even impossibility, of determining whether or not real children are involved and the virtually unlimited capacity to generate child exploitation material in this format creates a special need for general deterrence,” Brett said.
He said even material that did not involve real children still caused significant harm.
The court was told the videos on Hammer’s laptop, depicting the sexual abuse of children aged eight to 10, were not AI-generated.
Hammer admitted to police he accessed child abuse material daily and had done so on and off since 2015.
He said he used shredding software to wipe his laptop every two to three weeks and took steps to avoid detection.
His lawyers argued he should have been released immediately because of exceptional circumstances, citing diagnoses of autism, major depressive disorder and paedophilia.
But Brett said the offending was at a high level of objective seriousness and the mental health conditions did not significantly reduce Hammer’s moral culpability.
Justices Helen Wood and Stephen Estcourt agreed.
The sentence was found to be in line with comparable cases across Australia.
