An Ohio man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for a series of cybercrimes involving cyberstalking, sextortion and the creation of sexually explicit AI-generated content targeting his victims.
James Strahler II, 37, was arrested on federal charges on June 23, 2025. He was also charged with anonymous telecommunications harassment and producing and distributing child sexual abuse material.
Court documents say Strahler used more than 100 AI web-based models and over 24 AI platforms to create sexually explicit videos and images involving his victims.
From December 2024 through June 2025, Strahler sent harassing messages to at least six adult women. The messages included nude images of the victims, some of which were real while others were AI-generated.
Investigators said he created more than 700 images involving real victims and animated people and posted them on a website dedicated to child sexual abuse. Another 2,400 images and videos found on his phone were flagged as containing nudity, morphed child sexual abuse material or violence.
Strahler also sent AI-generated pornographic videos to his victims’ co-workers and demanded nude photographs from the mothers of several women he was targeting. He threatened to release fake explicit material involving their daughters if they refused.
He also left victims voicemails containing rape threats and references to their home addresses, while posting AI-generated child sexual abuse material online.
Strahler pleaded guilty in April to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and publishing digital forgeries. He was also the first defendant convicted of violating the Take It Down Act.
The Take It Down Act, enacted in 2025, prohibits the online publication of explicit content and AI-generated forgeries without consent, including material commonly associated with revenge porn.
The case highlights how AI-generated images and videos can be used alongside traditional online harassment and extortion. The Federal Trade Commission’s Take It Down platform provides information for people seeking to remove intimate images or videos that have been shared online without their consent.
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