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Review of ‘Coco’s Law’ finds positive signs

A review of the effectiveness of legislation known as ‘Coco’s Law', introduced in 2021, has described the early indications as “positive”.

The law criminalises the sharing of, or threatening to share, intimate images without a person’s consent, and distributing, publishing, or sending a threatening or grossly offensive communication to another person.

Section 12 of the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 provided for a review of its operation after three years.

The review, published by the Department of Justice, found that there had been 99 prosecutions since the act had come into effect. Of these cases:

• A total of 23 were prosecuted on indictment in the Circuit Court,
• The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) consented to summary disposal on guilty plea for eight cases,
• The DPP directed summary disposal on 68 cases, and
• One case was prosecuted on indictment in the Central Criminal Court.

The number of charges issued by An Garda Síochána has risen each year since the act came into force.

Hotline.ie

The review also noted that 1,791 reports had been made to Hotline.ie, a confidential portal and service for reporting intimate-image abuse (IIA) that was set up in September 2021.

Almost 1,500 were determined to be cases of IIA under the legislation. In 929 cases, the offending material was successfully removed.

The review also noted “encouraging” findings from independent evaluations of campaigns aimed at raising awareness of the issue of IIA.

Awareness

It said that, while the three years since commencement of the act was too short a period in which to draw sweeping conclusions, the number of cases of IIA and other relevant offences dealt with by Hotline.ie and gardaí had risen as people became more aware of the criminality involved.

“The early indicators regarding the operation of Coco’s Law are positive in terms of the general awareness of the public, the number of reports made to Hotline.ie, and the prosecutions initiated,” the review stated.

The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee described the results of the review as “heartening”.

“Making people aware of this legislation was – and continues to be – a major focus for us, and our awareness campaigns on intimate image abuse have been successful,” she added.

The enactment of this legislation acknowledged those who have lost their lives after online abuse, in particular Nicole ‘Coco’ Fox, whose mother Jackie campaigned to raise awareness about the harmful effects of online abuse.