Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), one of several lawmakers condemning the Netflix child sexploitation film “Cuties,” has introduced a bill this week to outlaw sex dolls and robots that look like children.
“We need to stop catering to predators and start paying more attention to protecting children,” Buchanan said in a press release.
Buchanan said his bill was in the works before he was made aware of the Netflix film’s release.
“A film that shows girls as young as 11 engaging in highly sexualized dance routines is inappropriate,” the congressman said. “I support artistic expression in film but this is exploitative, dangerous and borders on child pornography.”
His newest bill, the CREEPER 2.0 (Curbing Realistic Exploitative Electronic Pedophilic Robots) Act would ban the sale, possession, importation and transportation of sex dolls resembling children. 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.
Buchanan's updated version adds language from the Florida law that also makes it illegal to sell or possess the dolls. Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky are the only states that currently ban the dolls.
In the release, researcher Peter Fagan, 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’s bill comes after television station WTVJ reported a lifelike doll resembling a real girl from the Miami area was being sold online.