Removing Exploitative Content: Legal Accountability for Image Misuse (RECLAIM)
[Sacramento, CA] – Today, Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) and Assemblymember Diane Dixon (R-Newport Beach) announced bipartisan legislation to protect Californians from the proliferation of non-consensual intimate imagery and child sexual abuse material online.
The RECLAIM Act requires operators of Pornographic Websites to verify that sexually explicit content is uploaded with the consent of all depicted individuals.
“Every day, countless Californians, especially women and children, are victimized by sexual imagery posted online without their knowledge or permission," said Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan. "The recent explosion of AI-generated deepfakes has made this crisis exponentially worse. I'm proud to work on this critical legislation in a bipartisan way to ensure that the platforms profiting from this content can no longer hide behind anonymity and avoid accountability."
“I was proud to run AB 392 last year and am excited to have the opportunity to partner with Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan this year to tackle this issue again,” said Assemblymember Dixon. “Widespread access to the internet and generative AI tools have made it far too easy for non-consensual sexually explicit material to be posted online. This important legislation will ensure that uploaders are held accountable for the content they share on pornographic websites.”
The Growing Crisis
The internet has facilitated a dramatic increase in both images of children being sexually abused and non-consensual sexual imagery of women. Recent reporting has exposed how mainstream platforms host millions of videos depicting non-consensual content, including private images that were created consensually and videos and images that were created without the woman’s knowledge or consent. The rise of generative AI has only added to the problem: so-called "undress" apps and AI chatbots can now create realistic nude or sexually explicit images from ordinary, fully clothed photographs within seconds.
Just this month, thousands of women worldwide became victims when Elon Musk's AI tool, Grok, generated about 3 million sexualized images in less than two weeks, including 23,000 that appear to depict children. (Source) Women who spoke out about the abuse were subjected to even more degrading AI-generated imagery, including images depicting violence and racial abuse. (Source)
Despite growing awareness and media coverage surrounding issues such as deep-fakes and “undress” apps, online attacks against public-facing women (e.g., activists, journalists, lawmakers) are growing, with nearly three-quarters of journalist respondents reporting they had experienced online abuse, with over a third saying it led to them reducing their participation and visibility online. (Source) In politics, women serving in state legislatures reported four times the amount of sexual abuse in online spaces compared to their male counterparts, and women were more likely to recede from social media or reconsider running for reelection because of these attacks. (Source)
Victims of non-consensual sexual imagery suffer profound psychological harm, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and suicidal ideation. The abuse disproportionately affects women, girls, LGBTQ+ individuals, and women of color, and is often used as a tool to silence, harass, and exclude victims from full participation, not just in online spaces, but in the public sphere altogether. (Source) As journalist Moira Donegan testified in our 2025 informational hearing on technology enabled male violence against women and girls, “In non consensual pornography, offenders sexualize their targets specifically with the intent and the effect of degrading them, of injuring their dignity, of suggesting that they are unsuited for professional positions, educational attainment or the respect of their peers, and of provoking in their victims shame, distress and fear. This is the intent... and it is frequently successful.”
How the RECLAIM Act Works
The legislation requires operators of pornographic websites to:
- Exercise ordinary care and reasonable diligence to ensure that sexually explicit content does not include individuals depicted without consent
- Verify that users uploading content have obtained consent from all depicted persons
- Require users to submit certifications, under penalty of perjury, that all depicted individuals consented to both the creation and publication of the content
The bill establishes meaningful accountability for platforms that have long evaded responsibility by claiming ignorance of user-uploaded content.
The RECLAIM Act reflects California's continued leadership in protecting women and girls from online exploitation.
