House acts to tackle Deepfake Porn—but will it be enough to protect our children?

For New Jersey’s Westfield High School sophomore Francesca Mani, who was named by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in AI, the fight against a growing menace of AI-generated deepfake pornography became personal, but tonight she is celebrating a major victory.

On Monday, lawmakers in the House of Representatives took a significant step toward confronting one of the most insidious threats to our children in the digital age, passing the Take It Down Act by an overwhelming 409–2 vote.

The bill, which has already passed the Senate, now sits poised for President Trump’s signature. The legislation targets the ever-growing epidemic of AI-generated deepfake pornography, a form of exploitation that’s devastating the lives of young women and girls across the nation, leaving them humiliated, traumatized, and with little recourse for justice.

Last year, Mani and other girls at her school were horrified to learn that boys had used artificial intelligence to create explicit images of them, circulating these digital assaults throughout the school on platforms like Snapchat.

When her mother, Dorota Mani, learned of the horrors her daughter was enduring, she took action—lobbying for both state and federal legislation to prevent the use of AI to create non-consensual, sexually explicit images of minors. Their relentless advocacy helped fuel the momentum for the Take It Down Act, and now, this long-overdue legislation is on the verge of becoming law.

The bill criminalizes the creation and distribution of nonconsensual intimate imagery—including deepfake porn—and compels tech platforms to swiftly remove such content, under the threat of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement.

This breakthrough comes after years of inaction on the issue, and it’s a clear sign that the political will to protect children from this form of exploitation is finally catching up with the speed of technology.

However, as with any meaningful reform, this victory comes with its own complications.

The bill, which has earned bipartisan support from lawmakers like Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), has become a political lightning rod in recent days. Critics of the legislation, including some prominent voices on the left, argue that it could overreach—potentially stifling free speech or curbing legitimate digital expression.

Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) made headlines when he blocked the bill’s passage in the Senate, citing concerns over the definitions of terms like “deepfake” and “harm.”

This, despite widespread support for the bill from both sides of the aisle, and a growing chorus of victim advocates who insist the law is crucial to safeguarding young people.

Booker’s objection has been met with backlash from advocates like Francesca Mani, who called it a “failure to protect” the victims who have suffered at the hands of this new wave of digital abuse.

“Senator Booker’s actions left me and countless other young people vulnerable to further harm,” said a teenage girl who expressed frustration at the grandstanding New Jersey politician. “This bill needs to pass, and fast. Our safety should never be a bargaining chip in a political game.”

While the legal wrangling continues in Washington, the reality on the ground is clear: schools, parents, and victims are scrambling to keep up with the devastating consequences of AI-generated deepfakes.

In Westfield, the local school district’s response to the deepfake scandal involving Francesca and her classmates was disheartening, to say the least.

Administrators initially downplayed the seriousness of the incident, with the district claiming that the offending images had been “deleted” and that “no harm” had been done. But for the students, the damage was already done—emotionally, socially, and psychologically.

It’s a pattern we’ve seen play out across the nation. In places like Beverly Hills, California, where similar deepfake incidents have occurred, schools have been quicker to take action, expelling students and notifying police, but even here, the response feels like too little, too late.

As disinformation and digital harassment continue to proliferate, schools are forced to confront a new reality: children are not just cheating on their homework; they are weaponizing the very technology they were taught to embrace. And when that weapon is used to create explicit, non-consensual images of their peers, it is nothing short of child abuse.

This issue is not isolated to a few wealthy suburban communities like Westfield and Beverly Hills. Deepfake porn is a global epidemic, one that spans across borders and continents, leaving its victims—almost all of them young women—reeling.

Francesca Mani’s mother, Dorota, now fields calls from parents of victims across the globe, from Texas to Greece, who are struggling with the same nightmare. “It’s a worldwide problem,” Dorota said, her voice steady but filled with urgency. “We cannot wait any longer to address this issue. These predators must be held accountable.”

The bill’s passage in the House marks a rare moment of bipartisan unity in an otherwise fractured political climate. It shows that, when it comes to protecting children, partisan divides can be set aside in favor of a common-sense solution.

But the political drama surrounding the bill’s final passage leaves much to be desired. Can tech giants like Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat, who have endorsed the legislation, be trusted to enforce it?

The fight is far from over. While the Take It Down Act represents a crucial step forward, it is just the beginning of a long, hard battle to ensure that technology serves us, rather than harms us.

As Francesca and Dorota Mani’s tireless advocacy has shown, the voices of victims must be heard—and they must be heeded—if we are to protect our children from the dangers lurking in the shadows of cyberspace.

It is clear that deepfake porn is not just a passing trend—it’s a new, horrific form of exploitation that must be stamped out.

The Take It Down Act is a good first step, but it’s up to all of us—legislators, tech companies, parents, and children—to ensure that these digital predators are held accountable, and that the next generation can grow up in a world where their image and identity are no longer subject to the whims of those who seek to harm them.