School worker avoids jail time after AI child abuse material was found on his computer

A staff member from a Northern Beaches high school has avoided jail despite being convicted of generating child abuse material.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
He's used to hiding behind computer screens, but today Aaron
Panisi had nowhere to hide. Aaron, do you understand the
seriousness of your offending? Fifty four images of child abuse
material found on his computer while working as an IT
specialist at the Forest High School. All were AI generated

(00:24):
based on his descriptions of pre teenagers committing sexual acts.
Why did you generate AI images of children? Panisi was
arrested in March last year after he installed ilegal software
on school computers to steal the personal information of teachers,
including credit card details. That's when police found the disturbing

(00:45):
images at the Downing Center. Today, the magistrate said it's
the first he'd seen of its kind. Whether it's a
real child or artificially generated, in my view, is equally
abhorrent and a strong message needs to be sent to
the community. Panisi has autism spectrum disorder, but was undiagnosed
and untreated at the time. The magistrate said he was

(01:09):
unable to understand the full weight of his actions, but
that had to be balanced with the seriousness of his offending.
He's been sentenced to a three year good behavior bond
and mandatory psychological treatment. Do you deserve to be walking
three today in Ganilsen seven News