The Bill before the House is plain and simple. It amends what is known as Coco's Law. The purpose of the Bill is to clear up a grey area of whether the 2020 Act explicitly covers the creation of intimate images. However, it fails to state that the generation or creation of deepfake sexual images of adults is illegal. This must be remedied immediately. We witnessed the Grok controversy in December and January. Researchers estimated that 6,700 sexually suggestive nudified images were created hourly. These mainly depicted women, children and young girls and represent a violation of sacrosanct human rights. As if that was not bad enough, after a huge backlash, instead of removing such a base tool, X hid Grok behind a paywall rather removing it. The French have taken action, along with the UK's Ofcom, and have launched an investigation and raided X offices, citing violations of the digital safety Act. X and similar platforms must be constrained from allowing the creation of nudified images of women, children and young girls. Many countries are now calling for the removal of tools that can facilitate the latter. The Government must act. I would like to see action similar to that in France and the UK being taken here. That is why Deputies Máire Devine and Matt Carthy and Sinn Féin put this Bill forward. Coco's Law is a deterrent but needs strengthening. A review of the Act in 2024 stated that 100 cases were prosecuted by the Director of Public Prosecutions between 2021 and 2023. However, more than 1,500 victim reports were made in the same period. This is why we are asking that the Bill be accepted and that Coco's Law be strengthened in order to criminalise non-consensual intimate images and increase the maximum penalties on conviction. I welcome the fact that the Minister is not opposing the Bill.

Sentiment score: 0.10