Minnesota Legislature Passes Bill to Ban Nudification Apps: Survivors & Advocates Call for Walz to Sign Bill ASAP

Minneapolis, MN, (Wednesday, April 29, 2026) – The Minnesota Senate passed HF 1606, a bill to prohibit the use of nudification technology in the state, Wednesday afternoon. The bill is now headed to Governor Tim Walz’s desk. If HF 1606 is signed into law, Minnesota will be the first state to take this step to prevent the creation of AI-generated non-consensual intimate images (NCII).

“When people hear about pornography made with deep fake technology, they think of high-profile cases involving celebrities like Taylor Swift. I am proof that this can happen to anybody,” said survivor Molly Kelley, a Minnesota advocate and mom in her final semester at Mitchell Hamline School of Law.

Sponsors Sen. Erin Maye Quade and Rep. Jessica Hanson have been key in moving this bill forward, along with survivors Kelley, Jessica Guistolise, and Megan Hurley, who have testified beside them in committee. HF 1606 now only needs Governor Walz’s signature to become state law.

House sponsor Rep. Hanson emphasized the importance of cracking down on nudification apps now, before they cause even more harm. “The misuse of this technology has harmed too many people,” Rep. Hanson said. “It has empowered and enabled pedophiles and sexual predators to increasingly profit while causing more and more harm around the globe, particularly to children… These apps are readily available in nearly every app store, and we should not leave this dangerous tool to be weaponized by more and more predators.”

Senate sponsor Sen. Maye Quade highlighted the risk to all Minnesota residents of allowing this technology to remain available. “Nudification technology puts every Minnesotan at risk of having non-consensual porn made of them — and as of now, we have no way of stopping it,” Sen. Maye Quade said. “The only way to protect Minnesotans is to require companies to stop allowing their products to be used to create AI deepfake porn and sexual abuse material in the first place.”

Molly Kelley, who testified for the TAKE IT DOWN Act in 2024 and has been active in creating and advocating for HF 1606 and its Senate companion since early 2025, was one of over 80 women whose social media was used to create AI-generated NCII by a man she considered “a close friend of over 20 years.”

Since finding out innocent images from her social media had been nudified without her consent and distributed across the internet, she says she has removed all pictures of her children online. But she knows without action like HF 1606, that may not be enough.

“Personal choice is an illusion,” Kelley said. “We tell parents to be careful, post less, monitor more, lock things down. But none of that can reach the phone in someone else’s hand.” She worries about pictures that could be taken of her children in public and put through nudification apps. “Phones aren’t going anywhere. Some downsides are here to stay, but we can stop children from having their likeness used for sexual abuse before they can even read.”

“Nudification apps allow for automated abuse. Those that profit from pain should be held to account, and this bill will do that,” explained RAINN Vice President of Public Policy Stefan Turkheimer. “Every day that survivors know these images of them are online is a day they may not feel safe going to work, seeing their friends, or going to the grocery store. We cannot allow predators access to such a simple tool that causes so much harm.”