The House was set to vote Wednesday on legislation that that would ban the import or interstate sale of sex robots that look like children, in an effort to curb pedophilia.
The CREEPER Act, introduced by Rep. Dan Donovan, R-N.Y., is one of 11 suspension bills to be considered on Wednesday and has bipartisan support. The bill has 33 co-sponsors, including Republicans and Democrats, ahead of the Wednesday vote.
“It’s a uniquely vile person who preys on children to fulfill horrific pedophilic urges,” Donovan said in a statement when he announced the legislation in December. “During my 20 years as a prosecutor, I put away animals who played out their disgusting fantasies on innocent children. What I saw and heard was enough to make anybody sick.”
“Now, as a legislator in Congress, I’m introducing a bill to ban the newest outlet for pedophiles: child sex dolls,” he said. “They don’t belong in our communities.”
Donovan’s bill notes that child-like sex dolls are “customizable or morphable” and can resemble actual children. Most dolls are made in China, Japan, or Hong Kong and are shipped to the U.S. as mannequins to avoid detection in mail.
The bill states that there is a correlation between owning obscene dolls and robots and participation in child pornography.
“The robots can have setting that simulate rape,” the bill says. “The dolls and robots not only lead to rape, but they make rape easier by teaching the rapist about how to overcome resistance and subdue the victim.”
It also warns that the use of these robots can “normalize submissiveness and normalize sex between adults and minors.”
The New York Republican was a federal prosecutor for 20 years before his election to Congress in 2015. He is facing a high-profile primary challenge from former Rep. Michael Grimm, who served seven months in prison after a conviction on a felony count of tax evasion.
