By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

Mahaska County Attorney Andrew Ritland is urging the state legislature to update Iowa’s criminal laws on pornography to address the use of new technology.

“With the increase of artificially generated images online, either videos of still images, there’s been an increasing problem with individuals taking images of real children and adapting a pornographic image to make it appear that child is involved in a pornographic act,” Ritland said during a House subcommittee hearing.

Ritland told lawmakers there are already such cases in Iowa, but under current law they’re difficult to prosecute. Ritland supports a bill that expands the definition of sexual exploitation of a minor by making it a crime to produce or possess these kind of manipulated images.

“In this way we hope to further protect the children of Iowa against these new technological threats and hold perpetrators accountable,” Ritland said.

Ritland is urging lawmakers to pass another bill dealing with so-called revenge porn that uses artifically manipulated images to harass, intimidate or annoy adults or minors.

“Technology is not going to stop, right? The convincing nature of these photos and videos is going to get better and better until it’s indistinguishable to the human eye,” Ritland said. “…We need to get out in front of this issue as soon as we can before we get into a situation where we have to play catch up.”

Both bills have cleared initial review and are eliglble for votes in the Iowa House Judiciary Committee.