CONSENT Act
Sponsored By: Senator Schatz, Brian [D-HI]
Introduced
Summary
Creates a federal private civil remedy for people who receive unsolicited intimate images. It covers AI-made “intimate digital forgeries,” defines consent as affirmative and voluntary, and limits the remedy to direct transmissions rather than publication.
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- Recipients and vulnerable people: A person who gets an unwanted intimate image can sue the sender. A legal guardian may sue for a minor or someone incapacitated and plaintiffs who were minors can use initials or a pseudonym in filings.
- Senders and entities: Any sender 18 or older or any non-individual can face civil liability if they knowingly or recklessly transmit an intimate depiction without consent. There is an exception for good faith medical, educational, or law enforcement uses.
- Remedies available: Courts may award up to $1,000 in statutory damages, compensatory damages for emotional distress, reasonable attorney fees and costs, and injunctive relief to stop transmissions.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Recipients can sue over intimate images
This bill would create a federal civil right for someone who receives an intimate image without their consent. You would be able to sue a sender who knowingly transmits an intimate visual depiction in or affecting interstate commerce without consent. A guardian could sue for a person under 18, or someone who is incompetent or incapacitated. Plaintiffs could get up to $1,000 in statutory damages or recover emotional distress damages, plus reasonable attorney fees and costs. Courts could also issue temporary, preliminary, or permanent orders stopping the sender. The bill would let minor plaintiffs use initials or a pseudonym in filings and proceedings. Good-faith medical, educational, or law enforcement transmissions would be excepted, and the bill would not change criminal law or First Amendment protections.
Clear rules on consent and deepfakes
This bill would define key terms that decide who is protected. It would define "consent" as an affirmative, conscious, voluntary yes given free from force, fraud, duress, misrepresentation, or coercion. It would define an "intimate digital forgery" as an AI- or software-made intimate image that falsely represents a person (or the intimate content) and is indistinguishable from a real image to a reasonable person. The bill would adopt the existing statutory meaning of "intimate visual depiction" and expressly include these digital forgeries. It would also say "transmit" means sending an image directly to one or more people and does not include publishing.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Schatz, Brian [D-HI]
HI • D
Cosponsors
Sen. Blackburn, Marsha [R-TN]
TN • R
Sponsored 6/8/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov