Rep. Mark Harris’ Bill Targeting Child Predators Advances to the Senate

WASHINGTON, DC — On Monday, Representative Mark Harris’ (NC-08) bipartisan bill, the Child Predators Accountability Act of 2025, aimed at protecting children and ensuring severe legal consequences for offenders, passed the House.

Representative Harris said, “Protecting innocent children from exploitation must have no loopholes, no excuses, and no exceptions. Today, we took a major step forward by passing my bipartisan bill, the Child Predators Accountability Act, out of the House!

This critical legislation closes dangerous legal gaps by ensuring that anyone who produces a sexual video involving a child is held fully accountable—regardless of the child's depicted role or actions. It delivers a clear, uncompromising message: we will not tolerate any form of child sexual exploitation under federal law.

This legislation brings us closer to real justice for victims and stronger protections for every child. Now, the Senate must act.”

Bill Background:

• Under existing law, prosecutors sometimes face obstacles when a child is shown in a sexually exploitative video but is not the person engaged in the sexual act itself.
• The Child Predators Accountability Act of 2025 amends federal law to ensure that videos intentionally depicting a minor in a sexually exploitative context — regardless of their role in the act — are treated as child exploitation under federal law.
• As a result of this changed definition, intentionally depicting a child in a sexually explicit video is punishable under federal law by a minimum 15-year prison term. 

Watch Congressman Harris’s full debate remarks for the Child Predators Accountability Act of 2025 here.