DUBLIN, Ireland:  Minister for Justice, Migration and Home Affairs, Jim O'Callaghan TD, has stated that there was a 41.5 per cent increase last year in the number of prosecutions by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) under Coco's Law.

The law bans the sharing of intimate images without a person's consent.

New figures from the ODPP, shared by Minister O'Callaghan, show that 240 prosecutions have been taken under Coco's Law since it began in 2021.

The data shows that 75 cases were taken last year, compared with 53 cases in 2024. So far this year, 12 more cases have already been taken. The 75 cases in 2025 are almost double the 43 cases taken in 2023. There were 49 cases in 2022 and eight in 2021.

People found guilty under Coco's Law can face prison sentences of up to three years in the Circuit Court.

Last month, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the law may need to be strengthened because of the worrying increase in the use of artificial intelligence to create harmful content.

In a written reply in the Dáil to Cork North Central TD Padraig O'Sullivan, O'Callaghan explained that the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020, known as Coco's Law, came into effect in February 2021.

The law makes it a crime to share or threaten to share intimate images without consent. It also created a new offence for sending, publishing, or distributing threatening or very offensive messages with the intention of causing harm.

O'Callaghan said that decisions to prosecute are made independently by the ODPP.

In one case taken last year, a 20-year-old man from Co Clare was sent for trial at Ennis Circuit Court. He is accused of posting a collage of intimate images of a 15-year-old girl on his Snapchat stories. He faces three charges related to posting the images in November 2022, shortly after he turned 18.