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Good practice Imported

Coco's Law — Ireland's Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020

Ireland · Dublin · See the Ireland profile · See the Dublin profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 18% 89/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Ireland's 2020 'Coco's Law' criminalised sharing intimate images without consent and persistent online harassment. A 2024 review found almost 100 prosecutions and over 1,000 Hotline.ie complaints acted on — though it still omits AI-generated deepfakes.

~100
Cases prosecuted under Coco's Law (2021-2024)
1,006
Non-consensual image-sharing complaints logged (2021-2024)
366
Sextortion cases logged (2021-2024)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (Ireland)
Period
2020–present
Keywords
gender-based violence, digital safety, criminal justice, victim support

Context

The Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020, known as 'Coco's Law' after Nicole 'Coco' Fox, an Irish teenager who died by suicide after online image-based abuse, created two new offences: distributing or publishing intimate images without consent, and persistent harassment via any means of communication, including online.

Activities

The law took effect in 2021 and is enforced by An Garda Siochana and prosecuted by the Director of Public Prosecutions. In September 2024, Ireland's Department of Justice published an official review of the Act's first three years.

Results

The review found the DPP had prosecuted almost 100 cases -- including 23 tried on indictment before the Circuit Court and 8 dealt with summarily -- and that Hotline.ie had logged 1,006 complaints about non-consensually shared images, 400 complaints about threats to share such images, 366 sextortion cases and 27 harassment-related sharing threats.

Conclusions

The review concluded there were 'positive signs' of the law functioning as intended, but it does not explicitly criminalise AI-generated deepfake images. A January 2026 bill to close this loophole remained under consideration as of September 2026 and had not been enacted.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Enforcement absorbed within existing Garda/DPP budgets; no dedicated programme cost disclosed.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — In force since 2021; official 3-year review published September 2024.
Staffing & skills
An Garda Siochana investigators, Director of Public Prosecutions office, Hotline.ie reporting service

Conditions for success

  • a named victim's case galvanising legislative attention
  • a dedicated internet-safety reporting channel (Hotline.ie) feeding case data
  • periodic official review to track early implementation

Common failure modes

  • does not explicitly criminalise AI-generated deepfake images
  • a 2026 amendment bill to close this gap remained unenacted as of the review

Where it fits

Governance type
national criminal law
Scale
national
Income level
high income (EU member)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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