Key Takeaways New Jersey lawmakers are advancing new legislation in the 2026 session — including Bill A1359 — to expand protections against non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes, building on a comprehensive law enacted in April 2025. Existing penalties include up to five years imprisonment and fines of up to $30,000 for deepfake-related offences, with proposed bills seeking to introduce significantly harsher sentences for the most serious violations. New Jersey’s ongoing legislative activity reflects a broader recognition that AI-driven deepfake threats evolve faster than traditional lawmaking cycles, requiring continuous legal refinement rather than one-off statutory fixes. When male students at Westfield High School used AI tools to generate and distribute fabricated nude images of female classmates in 2023, it exposed a legal gap that New Jersey has spent the last two years trying to close.…