A New York congressman has introduced a bill that would stop people from bringing child sex dolls into the United States.
If enacted, the law would prevent anatomically accurate dolls of young children --often featuring fake eyelashes, wigs, warming devices and cleaning tools -- from being imported and distributed around the country.
The 'CREEPER' Act (Curbing Realistic Exploitative Electronic Pedophilic Robot) was introduced Thursday by New York congressman Dan Donovan and 12 other co-sponsors.
The silicone dolls are typically imported from China, Hong Kong and Japan, labeled as mannequins or models to avoid detection in the mail, a press release on the act said.
Child sex dolls resemble children as young as three, and can be customized to feature lifelike facial expressions, including sadness and fear, it said.
Donovan says the dolls act as 'near-real life training' for child sex abusers. The bill says there is a correlation between possession of child sex dolls and robots and use of child pornography.
"During my 20 years as a prosecutor, I put away animals who played out their disgusting fantasies on innocent children.
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"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. They don’t belong in our communities," he said.
There are currently no laws in the U.S. to prevent the proliferation of child sex dolls, he said.
Stop Abuse Campaign chief operations officer Melanie Blow said she backed the bill, adding that child sexual abused affects one in five American children.
"Child sex dolls and robots that do this are perfectly legal, and that's a problem," she said.
There had been a dramatic rise in the development of talking sex robots powered by artificial intelligence, Foundation for Responsible Robotics co-director Noel Sharkey said.
"The possibility of making anatomically detailed moving robot replicas of specific children for sexual gratification is now here and is surely a step too far."
Original cosponsors of the bill include representatives Peter King (NY-1), Trey Gowdy (SC-4), Rob Bishop (UT-1) Bill Johnson (OH-6), Tom Marino (PA-10), John Rutherford (FL-4), Nanette Barragan (CA-44), Claudia Tenney (NY-22), Don Bacon (NE-2), Chris Stewart (UT-2), Ann Kuster (NH-2) and Kathleen Rice (NY-4).
