RAINN Press

RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, has a problem with Grok’s new generative AI video tool’s “spicy” mode, which allows any user to create nude images and commit tech-enabled sexual abuse. According to The Verge’s Jess Weatherbed: “While other video generators like Google’s Veo and OpenAI’s Sora have safeguards in place to prevent users from creating NSFW content and celebrity deepfakes, Grok Imagine is happy to do both simultaneously. In fact, it didn’t hesitate…

As the Senate Judiciary Committee Sept. 15 heard from brave witnesses including gymnasts Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Maggie Nichols, and McKayla Maroney in a hearing on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) handling of the Larry Nassar case, RAINN and 12 other organizations urged the committee members to take action to rescue children experiencing abuse and prevent their retraumatization during the investigative process. According to a recent Department of Justice (DOJ) report, 70 or more young athletes…

President Trump signed the TAKE IT DOWN Act into law, establishing the first-ever federal protections for survivors of tech-enabled sexual abuse. The law makes it a federal crime to knowingly share or threaten to share nonconsensual intimate images (NCII)—including AI-generated deepfakes—and requires platforms to remove them within 48 hours of a survivor’s verified request. TAKE IT DOWN passed in a landslide of bipartisan support, marking a major milestone in protecting survivors and creating a safer…

Campaign Kicks Off During April’s Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse and Support Survivors in their Healing Washington, D.C. (April 19, 2023) – RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, and 11:11 Media Impact, the charitable division of Paris Hilton’s next-gen media company 11:11 Media, today announced a new partnership aimed at preventing child sexual abuse. The collaboration will focus on messaging and social media campaigns that educate the public…

Washington, D.C. (May 11, 2023) – RAINN released the following statement celebrating the Senate Judiciary Committee’s passage of the SHIELD Act and the Project Safe Childhood Act, days after survivors representing RAINN and ECPAT-USA held meetings on Capitol Hill: Ahead of yesterday’s markup and passage of landmark sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse legislation, the SHIELD Act and the Project Safe Childhood Act, RAINN partnered with ECPAT-USA to organize meetings of RAINN’s Speakers Bureau and…

Washington, D. C. (June 18, 2024) – RAINN, along with Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) held a press conference introducing the Take It Down Act. The Take it Down Act would establish a new criminal offense for the distribution of non-consensual AI-generated intimate images. The bill further supports survivors by requiring online platforms remove these harmful images within 48…

Washington, D.C.—Last night, the U.S. Senate voted to renew the Debbie Smith Act, a law that, to date, is responsible for aiding hundreds of thousands of investigations in America. The bill provides critical funding to public crime laboratories to efficiently and swiftly test DNA evidence, including rape kits. “The Debbie Smith Act has been the most effective anti-rape legislation that Congress has ever passed,” said Scott Berkowitz, RAINN’s founder and president. “It has helped law…

The U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) has recognized RAINN’s website for inclusion in its historical collections of web content. This recognition is part of NLM’s vital mission to collect, preserve, and make available materials that provide valuable information in medicine and public health while documenting their histories. NLM’s web archive collections play a crucial role in contributing to the historical record, capturing information that might otherwise be lost in the ever-changing digital landscape. As…

Washington, D.C. – RAINN released the following statement today after the January 2, 2023 and January 3, 20223 airing of Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly Part III: The Final Chapter, which featured RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline, 800.656.HOPE (4673) and hotline.RAINN.org. “Following the premiere of Surviving R. Kelly III: The Final Chapter, calls to RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline increased 46%. Many of the survivors who called had never told anyone what happened before speaking with…

Current New York statute requires that mental incapacitation result from a person being under the influence without their knowledge or consent New York, NY – Today RAINN, Miss New York USA Rachelle Di Stasio, Assemblyman Dinowitz, Assemblyman Hevesi, Former U.S. Congresswoman Maloney, and a coalition of other New York-based anti-sexual violence organizations called on New York lawmakers to close the state’s Volutary Incapacitation Loophole. “We must push lawmakers in New York to join 14 other…

Washington, D.C. – The Senate just passed a bill to prioritize the rescue of children who are sexually abused and exploited online. The Project Safe Childhood Act, led by Sens. John Cornyn, Amy Klobuchar, Chuck Grassley, Marsha Blackburn, Lindsey Graham, Richard Blumenthal, and Chris Murphy, will provide law enforcement and prosecutors with the necessary resources and tools to effectively investigate cases of online sexual exploitation and abuse of children. Child sexual abuse has been especially…

Washington, D. C. (April 28, 2025) — Today Congress gave survivors of tech-enabled sexual abuse a historic win with the landslide passage of the RAINN-backed Take It Down Act, fundamentally changing the way survivors experience the internet. Take It Down criminalizes the distribution of non-consensual AI-generated intimate images, commonly called “deepfakes,” and requires online platforms to remove these images within 48 hours of being reported. RAINN, the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the country, has…