On January 15, 2204, after a months-long investigation, Darrin Bell was arrested after authorities said they discovered child pornography at his home. The award-winning cartoonist was discovered with over 100 child pornography videos, some created by artificial-intelligence. Bell was connected to an online account that shared 134 videos of videos featuring the abuse of minors. The investigation began after a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Bell won a Pulitzer-Prize for his editorial cartoons. He has won and been nominated for numerous awards over the years and released the praised The Talk which was published by Henry Holt and released in June 2023. That was nominated as “Outstanding Graphic Novel” for the 2024 Ignatz Awards among numerous other awards and recognitions

Bell’s strip Candorville was suspended by The Washington Post and other outlets after his arrest.

Bell is reportedly the first person to be charged under California’s law criminalizing AI-generated child sexual abuse material.