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Bill would update campus harassment rules to cover AI‑facilitated and online sexual harassment
Summary
AB 2212 (HEAR Survivors Act) would expand higher‑education harassment definitions to include nonconsensual deepfakes, cyberstalking, cyberbullying and AI‑facilitated sexual harassment and require campuses to adopt policies and responses; student survivors and associations testified that many students never report online harms because they did not know resources were available.
Assemblymember Bauer‑Kean presented AB 2212, the Higher Education AI Response (HEAR) Survivors Act, to update postsecondary harassment policies to explicitly cover nonconsensual deepfakes, cyberstalking, cyberbullying and other technology‑facilitated sexual harassment. The bill would require campuses to develop policies and procedures that address these harms and to make resources more visible to students.
Student witnesses and advocates described the psychological harm and underreporting they said occur when online harassment is normalized or dismissed. Selena Mendez, an undergraduate at UC Berkeley and incoming External Affairs Vice President for the UC Student Association, said many student survivors never sought institutional help because they did not know it was available or did not realize online harms fell under campus policies.
Proponents said the bill updates definitions to match new digital realities and would promote consistent campus responses and reporting; the committee recorded a due‑pass recommendation to the Senate Judiciary Committee. There were no lead witnesses in opposition in the hearing record. The committee placed AB 2212 on call for absent members.
