Harassment by Nonconsensual Dissemination of Nude or Sexual Visual Depictions (including digitally created depictions)
Iowa Criminal NCII and Deepfake Law
Other · Artificial intelligence
Iowa's harassment statute makes nonconsensual sharing of nude or sexual images a first-degree harassment crime. A 2024 amendment extends it to images that were created, adapted, or modified from a recognizable person's face or likeness, which covers AI-generated sexual deepfakes, and requires adult offenders to register as sex offenders.
- Where
- Iowa
- Citation
- Iowa Code 708.7(1)(a)(5), (2)
- Status
- In force
- Last amended
- 2024-07-01
- Enforced by
- County attorneys and the Attorney General (criminal prosecution)
- People can sue
- No
- Penalties
- Harassment in the first degree, an aggravated misdemeanor (708.7(2)); adult offenders must register as sex offenders. A separate civil remedy exists under Iowa Code ch. 659A.
- Applies to
- Any person who disseminates, publishes, distributes, or posts a visual depiction of another person in full or partial nudity or engaged in a sex act without that person's consent, including depictions created, adapted, or modified from a recognizable person's image (708.7(1)(a)(5))
- Excludes voluntary exposure in public or commercial settings and other listed exceptions (708.7(6)); interactive computer service providers are not liable for third-party content
Practices it requires
- Do not disseminate, publish, distribute, or post a visual depiction showing another person nude or in a sex act without that person's consent.Iowa Code 708.7(1)(a)(5)
- The prohibition covers depictions of a person recognizable by face, likeness, or other features whose image was used to create, adapt, or modify the depiction (synthetic or AI-altered images).Iowa Code 708.7(1)(a)(5) (as amended by 2024 Acts ch. 1065) · From 2024-07-01
Sources
- Official text
- Iowa Code 708.7 (Iowa Code 2026, Iowa Legislature)
- 2024 Iowa Acts ch. 1065 (HF 2240), approved April 19, 2024
Checked against these sources on 2026-09-25 by research agent (Claude), primary sources.
Unverified: The date the underlying nonconsensual-dissemination offense was first added (the section history lists 2017 Acts ch. 117) was not confirmed from the session law. The exact subsection holding the interactive-computer-service carve-out was not pinned down.
Research reference, not legal advice.