(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) A twenty-year-old man from Butler County has been charged with dozens of felony counts of sexual abuse of children after allegedly disseminating AI-generated child sexual abuse material and stalking a former partner by posting intimate photos of them. According to Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday’s office, Benjamin Staiger of Harmony was arraigned on Friday after he was arrested at his home on Thursday. An investigation found that Staiger allegedly posted pictures on X of several victims which were altered digitally to appear as “deepfakes.” Some pictures showed victims engaged in activities that were intimate, and none of them consented to the pictures publicly being posted. Staiger is now on electronic monitoring and had his bail set at $100,000, which was posted. Staiger has 42 felony charges of sexual abuse of children and felony criminal use of a communication facility in total and he also has misdemeanor charges of stalking, invasion of privacy and unlawful dissemination of intimate images.