A new programme to educate children about the dangers of online harrassment

More than 400 charges and summons have now been initiated under what's known as Coco's Law.

That's the law aimed at tackling online harassment and the circulation of intimate images.

Those figures were provided by the Garthee this morning as they introduced a new schools program

to educate young people about the dangers of such behavior. Students at our Lady of Mercy

Secondary School in Dremna in Dublin were taught about Coco's Law today. They told our reporter

Eleanor Bernhill what they taught about it. Personally I think that cyberbullying and just

bullying in general is awful and that no one should have to go through and if someone sends

like images or anything it just talked to someone because that's just the main thing.

If you're not the one who made or if you're not the one who's trying to send it and you just

get sent and you send it to another person that's just as bad which is a big shock to me.

The law was named after Nicole or Coco Fox from Dublin who was relentlessly bullied for a number

of years. Her mother Jackie Fox now speaks to schools about her story. Well the impact with the

schools that I go to is incredible because one when I when I do my talks you could hear a pin drop

in the room but when I'm thinking to my talk students come up and the things they tell me is so

sad like about how dare feel and things so it's great that they're able to talk to me. I find in

schools now I used to do TY fifth and sixth but now a lot of a lot of schools are calling me in

for four seconds and towards saying like the bullying in like it's getting younger the victims

are getting younger and the bullies are getting younger. Jackie Fox a short time ago I spoke to

assistant guard the commissioner Kathrina Gunn and I started by asking her to remind us what

Coco's law is. Coco's law criminalizes online harassment and it also makes it illegal to share

or to threaten to share intimate images without consent. And can you give us an idea then of the

sort of prosecutions that are being brought under this law? Yeah there's a number of prosecutions

and when we look back between the period of the 1st of January 2023 and the 28th of February

2026 there's a number of categories under their harmful communications and these are a number of

incidents. For example 552 reported incidents of distributing grossly offensive communication to

cause harm 1,140 of distributing publishing recording intimate images. A hundred and seven

defy reported incidents of recording intimate images causing interference or alarm.

So what we are asking and that confidentially if you have been affected by threatening or

offensive communications or the sharing of intimate images are experiencing such a present

please contact us contact us in person or by phone at any guard at the station and it's also a

great opportunity today's schools program in collaboration with the Department of Education and

Webwise to launch Coco's law of the 1st module and Coco's law as part of the schools program.

Will you tell us then a little more about that schools program what does it include?

The module will help students understand online safety, respect and consent. The less

than is aimed at first and second year students its purpose is really simple Rachel it's to protect

young people from harm young people as we know nowadays are online every day and this gives them

guidance on the risks of sharing or receiving harmful content. Coco's law however goes beyond the

message of just the law like with the law there is circumstances that it's criminal there's

criminal offenses there and there's fines and there's an up to imprisonment of seven years but it

goes beyond that it looks at kindness as respect and consent and we're encouraging all the students

that that must guide all online behavior and community guardians around the country will deliver

this less than nationwide given students a trusted adult that they can turn to in relation to

reporting the matter or just talking through the matter and what we're doing by this is we're

honoring Coco's legacy by empowering young people to just stay safe and confident online and it's

just building that safer and respected digital communities out there that with the Department of

Education and Webwise that people are safe by the wrong line. These are issues that previous

generations didn't have to contend with can it be difficult for young people to know what is and

what isn't illegal? Yes so this this is with it as part of the school's program that we are going

into that detail but however we also have now with images that are intimate images and what Coco's

law does is that if it's shared about you like it's very it's very important this piece that

if you threatened to share an image or and and it's shared about you to someone else and it's threatened

or it's actually done Coco's law addresses that now and it's not just for children it's for adults

and that that's a big piece there but but it's also that technology and that communication is

provides great opportunity however we're just looking at all sort of vulnerabilities that are

presented. How hopeful are you that schools all over the country will take part in this program?

Yeah well at the moment in the schools program we have we're just into approximately a thousand

schools there's 3,000 schools out there and we want to build on that last year we got into

approximately a thousand so what we have delivered is across 2024 we delivered 3,300 lessons and also

what we've done in the first six months of 2025 is we've delivered two and a half thousand lessons

we also have rather road safety we have personal safety online safety human rights substance use

and helping neighbors so the schools program is all encompassing of that

safeness and and confidence we're also in partnership with hotline.ai and hotline.ai is when

you're reporting the matter to one garthishia kona in regards to that report it also makes the

request to take down any intimate image so that's very important you're doing both at the same time

simultaneously. Gartha assistant commissioner Katharina gone talking to me a little earlier