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2nd September 2021
10:17am BST
As of this year, there are now laws in place to combat image based sexual abuse. If convicted of sharing images without consent, a person could face jail time.
Known as Coco's Law, the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act was brought in on February 10th of this year and made it a criminal act to share non-consensual intimate images.
Minister of State for Civil and Criminal Justice Hildegarde Naughton said that there are no excuses for sharing these types of intimate images or threatening to share them.
"If you share an intimate image without consent, you share in the abuse and there is legislation in place with appropriate punitive measures that will challenge the actions of these abusers," she said.
Research commissioned by the Department of Justice found that one in 20 adults have had intimate images shared without their consent, with one in 10 among 18 to 24 year olds and 25 to 37 year olds.
The new campaign looks "to challenge the narrative that places some or all of the blame on the victim", and will be featured on social media platforms.
The Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017 was signed into law by President Michael D Higgins last year, but commenced in February. The offence carries a penalty of up to €5,000 and/or up to 12 months imprisonment but could be much longer.
Informally named 'Coco's Law', the legislation criminalises image-based sexual abuse and other forms of online abuse in Ireland. The law is named after Nicole Fox Fenlon, a 21-year-old woman who died by suicide in 2018 after being cyber-bullied.Explore more on these topics:
