‘Magnifica Humanitas’ condemns online sexual exploitation as ‘Take It Down Act’ enforcement begins

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” addressed sexual exploitation as one of the human dignity concerns posed by AI.

That issue is one U.S. lawmakers took a first step toward addressing last year with the Take It Down Act, which the Federal Trade Commission began enforcing May 19, just a few days before the encyclical’s publication on May 25.

In “Magnifica Humanitas,” Pope Leo addressed “the risk of dehumanization” in the development of AI technology, including “easy access to violent or degrading content that offends sensibility, to pornographic and hypersexualized material, to messages that trivialize the body and emotions, and to proposals that normalize risky behavior.”

“Online phenomena such as grooming, blackmail and the sexual exploitation of minors are not uncommon, and are made more insidious by the use of fake profiles, algorithms that facilitate dangerous contact, and AI tools capable of manipulating images and videos,” Pope Leo wrote.

The nonconsensual online publication of sexually explicit images and videos — both authentic or generated by artificial intelligence, sometimes called “deepfakes” — was targeted by a bipartisan group of lawmakers and first lady Melania Trump last year.

The bipartisan, bicameral Take It Down Act imposes criminal penalties on those who threaten to publish such material, and requires social media companies to remove such images at the victims’ request.

The first lady was among the prominent advocates of the bill. When President Donald Trump signed it into law last year, he directed her to add her signature as well.

A spokesperson for the first lady’s office said in written comments to OSV News that “First Lady Melania Trump championed the TAKE IT DOWN Act as one of her first priorities of the second term to help protect young people online.”

“President Trump’s Department of Justice is pursuing perpetrators under the law, and the Federal Trade Commission launched TakeItDown.FTC.gov to help Americans targeted nonconsensual intimate images — including deepfakes — to remove them more quickly and effectively,” the spokesperson said. “The hope is that every young person knows there is a way out, that help is available, and that awareness of these tools will save lives.”

Walter J. Scheirer, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame and the co-author of the book “Virtue in Virtual Spaces: Catholic Social Teaching and Technology,” told OSV News that “Magnifica Humanitas rightly condemns AI-generated sexual exploitation content — material that is purely malicious and should not be on the internet.”

Scheirer, who has studied online disinformation and AI deepfakes, said the Take It Down Act “was a good first step in the U.S., but more still needs to be done to combat this very serious problem.”

He pointed to Section 230, part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, arguing it “largely absolves platforms from legal liability for the content being provided to the public in the first place.”

“Thus the process is more reactive than proactive — the latter approach Pope Leo is clearly advocating for in this encyclical as he requests ‘holding service providers accountable’ and having them redesign their platforms to prevent the content from appearing at all,” he said.

Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn, and Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., and Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., the sponsors of the Take It Down Act, wrote in a May 19 letter to FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson to request regular updates on the law’s enforcement.

“We write to ensure the Federal Trade Commission uses its new authority to protect and assist victims of non-consensual intimate imagery and hold online platforms that fail to take down these images accountable,” the letter said.

In his encyclical, Pope Leo also wrote that “Far-sighted public policies are needed to oppose the immediate interests of platforms, concentrated in a few hands, when they conflict with the wellbeing of minors.”

“In this regard, interventions by legislators are appropriate for setting age limits, holding service providers accountable rather than shifting the whole burden of control onto families, and for providing specific protections against all forms of online sexual exploitation and violence,” the pontiff wrote.

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