U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) on Sept. 3 said he plans to reintroduce legislation that would amend the federal criminal code to broaden the prohibition on the importation or transportation of obscene materials, specifically child sex dolls.
The bill — originally known as the Curbing Realistic Exploitative Electronic Pedophilic Robots (CREEPER) Act of 2017 — would make it a crime to import, or knowingly use a common carrier or interactive computer service to transport a child sex doll in interstate or foreign commerce, according to the congressional record bill summary. The CREEPER Act, H.R. 4655, in 2018 passed the U.S. House of Representatives with support from Rep. Buchanan, but died in the U.S. Senate.
Rep. Buchanan’s plans to introduce a new version of the bill follows a report last week by NBC-TV that a lifelike doll resembling a real girl in the Miami area was being sold on the internet, according to the congressman’s staff.
“This is sickening and cannot be allowed to continue,” Rep. Buchanan said. “We need to enact a national ban on these obscene products that are known to encourage pedophilia and the exploitation of children.”
The congressman also said that if a new bill does not pass Congress this year, he plans to reintroduce it again during the 2021 session.
Rep. Buchanan, who is co-chairman of the Florida congressional delegation, wants his home state to join Kentucky and Tennessee as one of the nation’s three states banning the transport of child sex dolls.