There are few issues on which Republicans and Democrats appear capable of working together, but one is support of the CREEPER Act (Curbing Realistic Exploitative Electronic Pedophilic Robots Act 2.0). A group of 34 lawmakers sent a letter to the online platform Shein, criticizing it for having failed to prevent the sale of childlike sex dolls; Shein has recently banned such products (and indeed everything else in the “adult products” category) in response to prosecutorial investigation in France, but not fast enough to satisfy U.S. representatives. Their letter declared, “there is no question as to whether these dolls encourage child abuse and exploitation,” despite a complete lack of empirical scholarship in support of that proposition. Indeed, some scholars investigating the topic think their effect is to provide a safe cathartic outlet for pedophiles.
The U.S. would be joining a growing list of countries banning such fantasy outlets; most recently the Swedish government has moved to do so after they were found for sale on Amazon.
