Law / United States / Iowa
Harassment, nonconsensual and synthetic intimate images
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force.
An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Iowa's harassment offense reaches a person who disseminates, publishes, distributes, or posts a visual depiction showing another person in a state of full or partial nudity or engaged in a sex act, without that person's consent, and defines the other person to include an individual who is recognizable by face, likeness, or other distinguishing features whose image is used to create, adapt, or modify a visual depiction to depict them in that manner, reaching a nonconsensual synthetic or deepfake intimate image.
A violation is harassment in the first degree, an aggravated misdemeanor, and an offender eighteen or older must register as a sex offender. Exceptions apply to voluntary exposure in public or commercial settings, disclosures made in the public interest, and disclosures by an interactive computer service under 47 U.S.C. 230.
The provision binds any person and is not limited to an AI developer or platform; a private civil action under this section is available only for a different subparagraph, the false reporting of a crime, not for this one. The provision's own amendment history in the Iowa Code names the amending Acts by year only, without a single commencement date for this language.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionNo
Criminal exposure note
A violation of subsection 1, paragraph a, subparagraph (5) is harassment in the first degree, an aggravated misdemeanor, and an offender eighteen years of age or older must register as a sex offender under chapter 692A.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
criminal prosecution under Iowa's criminal code
What it reaches
Obligation class
Prohibition
When LexLint raises it
generates_content