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More than 400 charges and summons have now been initiated under what's known as Coco's Law.
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That's the law aimed at tackling online harassment and the circulation of intimate images.
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Those figures were provided by the Garthee this morning as they introduced a new schools program
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to educate young people about the dangers of such behavior. Students at our Lady of Mercy
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Secondary School in Dremna in Dublin were taught about Coco's Law today. They told our reporter
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Eleanor Bernhill what they taught about it. Personally I think that cyberbullying and just
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bullying in general is awful and that no one should have to go through and if someone sends
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like images or anything it just talked to someone because that's just the main thing.
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If you're not the one who made or if you're not the one who's trying to send it and you just
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get sent and you send it to another person that's just as bad which is a big shock to me.
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The law was named after Nicole or Coco Fox from Dublin who was relentlessly bullied for a number
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of years. Her mother Jackie Fox now speaks to schools about her story. Well the impact with the
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schools that I go to is incredible because one when I when I do my talks you could hear a pin drop
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in the room but when I'm thinking to my talk students come up and the things they tell me is so
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sad like about how dare feel and things so it's great that they're able to talk to me. I find in
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schools now I used to do TY fifth and sixth but now a lot of a lot of schools are calling me in
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for four seconds and towards saying like the bullying in like it's getting younger the victims
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are getting younger and the bullies are getting younger. Jackie Fox a short time ago I spoke to
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assistant guard the commissioner Kathrina Gunn and I started by asking her to remind us what
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Coco's law is. Coco's law criminalizes online harassment and it also makes it illegal to share
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or to threaten to share intimate images without consent. And can you give us an idea then of the
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sort of prosecutions that are being brought under this law? Yeah there's a number of prosecutions
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and when we look back between the period of the 1st of January 2023 and the 28th of February
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2026 there's a number of categories under their harmful communications and these are a number of
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incidents. For example 552 reported incidents of distributing grossly offensive communication to
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cause harm 1,140 of distributing publishing recording intimate images. A hundred and seven
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defy reported incidents of recording intimate images causing interference or alarm.
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So what we are asking and that confidentially if you have been affected by threatening or
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offensive communications or the sharing of intimate images are experiencing such a present
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please contact us contact us in person or by phone at any guard at the station and it's also a
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great opportunity today's schools program in collaboration with the Department of Education and
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Webwise to launch Coco's law of the 1st module and Coco's law as part of the schools program.
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Will you tell us then a little more about that schools program what does it include?
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The module will help students understand online safety, respect and consent. The less
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than is aimed at first and second year students its purpose is really simple Rachel it's to protect
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young people from harm young people as we know nowadays are online every day and this gives them
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guidance on the risks of sharing or receiving harmful content. Coco's law however goes beyond the
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message of just the law like with the law there is circumstances that it's criminal there's
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criminal offenses there and there's fines and there's an up to imprisonment of seven years but it
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goes beyond that it looks at kindness as respect and consent and we're encouraging all the students
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that that must guide all online behavior and community guardians around the country will deliver
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this less than nationwide given students a trusted adult that they can turn to in relation to
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reporting the matter or just talking through the matter and what we're doing by this is we're
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honoring Coco's legacy by empowering young people to just stay safe and confident online and it's
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just building that safer and respected digital communities out there that with the Department of
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Education and Webwise that people are safe by the wrong line. These are issues that previous
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generations didn't have to contend with can it be difficult for young people to know what is and
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what isn't illegal? Yes so this this is with it as part of the school's program that we are going
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into that detail but however we also have now with images that are intimate images and what Coco's
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law does is that if it's shared about you like it's very it's very important this piece that
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if you threatened to share an image or and and it's shared about you to someone else and it's threatened
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or it's actually done Coco's law addresses that now and it's not just for children it's for adults
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and that that's a big piece there but but it's also that technology and that communication is
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provides great opportunity however we're just looking at all sort of vulnerabilities that are
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presented. How hopeful are you that schools all over the country will take part in this program?
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Yeah well at the moment in the schools program we have we're just into approximately a thousand
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schools there's 3,000 schools out there and we want to build on that last year we got into
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approximately a thousand so what we have delivered is across 2024 we delivered 3,300 lessons and also
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what we've done in the first six months of 2025 is we've delivered two and a half thousand lessons
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we also have rather road safety we have personal safety online safety human rights substance use
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and helping neighbors so the schools program is all encompassing of that
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safeness and and confidence we're also in partnership with hotline.ai and hotline.ai is when
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you're reporting the matter to one garthishia kona in regards to that report it also makes the
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request to take down any intimate image so that's very important you're doing both at the same time
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simultaneously. Gartha assistant commissioner Katharina gone talking to me a little earlier