{"id":292103,"date":"2026-02-11T09:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T09:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/292103\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T09:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T09:08:08","slug":"proposed-changes-to-cocos-law-aim-to-close-ai-loophole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/292103\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed changes to Coco\u2019s Law aim to close AI \u2018loophole\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A change in Coco\u2019s Law to \u201cclose a loophole\u201d around the generation of nonconsensual intimate images and videos using AI was debated in the D\u00e1il on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in brought the Bill to amend current legislation to the D\u00e1il after reports an AI chatbot on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, was being used to create deepfake sexualised images of people, including children.<\/p>\n

The Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill, also known as Coco\u2019s Law, was enacted in 2020.<\/p>\n

It makes the distribution or publication of an intimate image without consent, with intent to cause harm to the victim, a serious offence with perpetrators facing up to seven years imprisonment.<\/p>\n

It also criminalises threats to distribute or publish such images.<\/p>\n

\"MattMatt Carthy said there is ambiguity in Coco\u2019s Law (Damien Eagers\/PA)<\/p>\n

However, Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesman on justice Matt Carthy said there is \u201cambiguity\u201d in the current legislation, that had been \u201cexposed\u201d by Grok.<\/p>\n

The party says it brought forward the amendment to \u201cclarify that the creation of sexualised AI deepfakes is illegal\u201d.<\/p>\n

During the Bill\u2019s second reading, Carthy criticised the Government saying, \u201cthey could have brought forward immediate and targeted amendment to close this loophole\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIf this was clear in law, then we wouldn\u2019t need a minister to sit down with the companies involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you or I are suspected of breaking the law, the minister doesn\u2019t come to our house to discuss it, the appropriate powers hold us to account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maire Divine, who co-authored the amendment, said over 11 days roughly three million sexualised images were produced using Grok and said \u201c99 per cent\u201d of them were of women and young children.<\/p>\n

The changes to the law would also extend the statute of limitations from two to five years, to allow victims more time to come forward.<\/p>\n

They would give An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na more time to forensically technically examine personal electronic devices.<\/p>\n

And they aim to increase the maximum penalties people convicted of these crimes would face.<\/p>\n

\"JimJim O\u2019Callaghan said the Government would not oppose the Bill at its current stage (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n

Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan said the Government would not oppose the Bill at its current stage, adding it shared the \u201cwidespread revulsion of the fact that platforms have allowed the nonconsensual nudification of images, primarily of women and children\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said there was a number of pieces of legislation which covered the generation or alteration of sexual images by AI.<\/p>\n

But said he is \u201ckeen to ensure that there are no gaps in the legislation and that the current established legal framework is sufficiently robust to protect people from digital harms\u201d.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan did criticise some aspects of the Sinn F\u00e9in Bill, saying the Attorney General had advised the proposed prison term of up to five years, for the creation of an image that is not shared, is a \u201cdisproportionate penalty\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A change in Coco\u2019s Law to \u201cclose a loophole\u201d around the generation of nonconsensual intimate images and videos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,80],"class_list":["post-292103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}