First ‘Take It Down Act’ Sentencing Puts Man Behind Bars for 15 Years
404 Media Samantha Cole
First Take It Down Act conviction just got a 15-year prison sentence in Ohio. It’s the law’s first use, and the case involved real abuse images plus AI-made ones.
Based on reporting by 404 Media, Samantha Cole — read the original for the full story.
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The first person convicted under the Take It Down Act has been sent to prison for 15 years. Federal prosecutors said 38-year-old Ohio man James Strahler was punished for cybercrimes involving real and AI-generated sexually explicit images, along with threats against multiple victims.
Investigators said they found more than 3,000 images and videos across his devices. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in southern Ohio said he created more than 700 images of real victims and animated people, then posted them to a site devoted to child sexual abuse material. They also said another 2,400 items on his phone were flagged as nudity, morphed child sexual abuse material or violence.
The case moved through state and federal charges after a woman reported a barrage of abuse in early 2025. Court records and local reporting say she and her mother received 31 calls and texts in nine days, including threats of sexual assault, extortion, and AI-made images of her changing clothes and using the bathroom at home. Other messages allegedly included AI images showing her in sexual conduct with multiple men, including male relatives.
Strahler had several accounts on Motherless.com, according to the Columbus Dispatch, and Dutch authorities took the Netherlands-based site offline in May after a CNN investigation into sexual abuse material there. The Take It Down Act went into effect in May, after his first arrest and before his federal case. He was first charged on January 5, later pleaded guilty to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and publication of digital forgeries, and was then arrested again on federal charges after more women came forward.
The broader legal fight around AI abuse imagery is still messy. Last month, a federal appeals panel said the First Amendment protects possession of AI-generated child sexual abuse material at home if it doesn’t depict a real child, even as other charges in that case remain. Ohio doesn’t currently have a deepfake-specific law, but the new federal statute is now on the books — and prosecutors have already used it.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the kind of case lawmakers love to point at when they want a shiny new internet crime law. But the mess underneath is obvious: platforms, speech rules, and AI abuse imagery are all getting crammed into one bucket and kicked down the road at the same time. The law may be new, but the ugly part is very old: men using whatever tool is handy to terrorize women and kids.
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