WASHINGTON – During National Child Abuse Prevention Month, Congressmen Vern Buchanan and Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) today announced that they have introduced legislation to ban the sale of sex dolls resembling children.
The CREEPER (Curbing Realistic Exploitative Electronic Pedophilic Robots) Act 2.0 will help reduce pedophilia by banning the sale of lifelike child sex dolls used by predators to “normalize” their behavior.
“This is sickening and cannot be allowed to continue,” Buchanan said. “As we recognize National Child Abuse Prevention Month, we need to enact a national ban on these obscene products that are known to encourage pedophilia and the exploitation of children.”
The CREEPER Act 2.0 is modeled in part after a Florida law. The original CREEPER Act introduced in Congress in 2017 banned the transportation and importation of child sex dolls but languished in the U.S. Senate. The updated version adds language from the Florida law that also makes it illegal to sell or possess the dolls.
Congressman Moskowitz said, “Protecting kids from predators is just common sense. It’s really sickening that these dolls are allowed, and I’m proud that Florida was a leader in banning these products back in 2019. Sheriffs, district attorneys, and child safety advocates have gotten behind this bill, and I stand with them in this effort to fight child exploitation.”
Florida is one of five states to ban child sex dolls, including Tennessee, Kentucky, Utah and Hawaii.
Buchanan originally introduced this legislation in 2020 after NBC 6 in Miami reported that a lifelike doll resembling a real girl in the Miami area was being sold online. The mother said a photo of her child was stolen and her likeness was turned into a sex doll that was legally for sale on Amazon and other websites. The girl’s mother was horrified and expressed concern for her daughter’s safety.
Experts agree that the dolls are dangerous because they "normalize" pedophilia and encourage sexual assaults against real children. Peter Fagan, a researcher from John Hopkins School of Medicine stated that child sex dolls have a “reinforcing effect” on pedophilic ideation and “in many instances, cause it to be acted upon with greater urgency.”
Buchanan, co-chair of the bipartisan 30-member Florida congressional delegation, is a leader in the fight against human trafficking. He recently introduced the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Prevention Training Act to combat human trafficking by educating students about the rapidly spreading crime.
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