New federal crime targets adults who coerce children into self-harm online
S. 3397 — ECCHO Act · Filed by Chuck Grassley (R-IA) · 16 cosponsors · Introduced Dec 9, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates a new federal crime: intentionally coercing a minor (anyone under 18) to harm themselves, others, or animals through threats, extortion, fraud, or manipulation—including online tactics like doxxing, swatting, or false emergency reports. Violations carry sentences up to life imprisonment for coercion to suicide or homicide, and up to 30 years for other harms. The bill integrates this new offense into existing child-protection statutes and reporting requirements.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a straightforward criminal offense targeting coercion of minors. It does not redistribute resources, create subsidies, or establish new agencies—it criminalizes conduct and integrates that crime into existing child-protection law.
What the text implies
- Expands federal jurisdiction over conduct that may previously have been prosecuted only at state level, centralizing enforcement authority.
- Integrates online coercion into the NCMEC reporting framework (18 U.S.C. § 2258A), potentially increasing volume of reports to the CyberTipline.
- Defines 'coerce' broadly to include manipulation and degradation, which may create prosecutorial discretion in borderline cases involving peer pressure or social media dynamics.
- Covers conduct 'within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction' and via interstate commerce, potentially capturing conduct with minimal interstate nexus.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill creates enforceable criminal penalties for a previously underaddressed harm—coercion of children to self-harm or harm others—and integrates it into existing child-protection infrastructure. Minors gain a new legal shield against a specific category of abuse; no offsetting cost to ordinary citizens is apparent.
Named in the bill
U.S. Department of Justice, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Chapter 110A, Title 18, United States Code, PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008
Where it stands
16 cosponsors: 9 Democrats, 6 Republicans, 1 Independents.
- Dec 9, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Dec 9, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
6 lobbying clients named this bill on 8 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $7,411,111 in lobbying spend. A filing names 20 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 82% of bills with at least one filing.
Chuck Grassley, the sponsor, reported $52,667 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Google Client Services LLC — $6,920,000 on 2 filings
- Snap Inc. — $240,000 on 1 filing
- Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund — $110,000 on 1 filing
- Internet Works — $90,000 on 2 filings
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children — $37,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (6,487 characters) on Oct 31, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,778 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-31.
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