Protect Victims of Digital Exploitation and Manipulation Act of 2025

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Proposed
• Most recent activity date: 2025-04-01

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Exposure to toxic content
• Compromise of privacy
• False or misleading information
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• AI system security vulnerabilities
• Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• AI possessing dangerous capabilities

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 5-6 subdomains, with strong focus on malicious actors (4.1, 4.3), privacy compromise (2.1), toxic content exposure (1.2), and AI system security (2.2). Coverage is concentrated in malicious use, privacy violations, and harmful content generation domains.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Information

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Professional & Technical Services
• Educational Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This Act primarily governs the Information sector (including telecommunications, data processing, and interactive computer services) through its regulation of communications service providers and information content providers. It applies broadly across all sectors where AI-generated intimate visual depictions might be produced or distributed.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding federal statute with criminal penalties including fines and imprisonment up to 5 years, establishing clear legal obligations and enforcement mechanisms.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The document is explicitly proposed by the United States Congress as indicated in the enacting clause and legislative format.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer, AI_User
• Summary: The Act targets 'whoever' produces or distributes digital forgeries, which encompasses AI developers creating such tools, deployers operating them, and users generating the content. Communications service providers are explicitly addressed with conditional liability.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: As a criminal statute under title 18 of the United States Code, enforcement would be conducted by federal law enforcement agencies and prosecuted through federal courts, though no specific agency is named in the document.

Monitor

• Summary: The document does not establish or reference any specific monitoring, oversight, or evaluation body. As a criminal statute, monitoring would occur through standard law enforcement investigation processes, but no dedicated monitoring entity is created.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Build and Use Model
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily addresses the Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages by regulating the distribution and production of AI-generated content. It implicitly covers Build and Use Model through its definition of digital forgeries created using AI, machine learning, or software.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Models
• AI Systems
• Generative AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly mentions AI, machine learning, and software as technologies used to create digital forgeries. It does not distinguish between different types of AI (frontier, general purpose, task-specific, foundation models) or mention compute thresholds. The focus is on generative AI capabilities that create visual depictions.