Law / United States / 
Iowa
Harassment, nonconsensual and synthetic intimate images
In force since .
An AI prohibited practices rule binding public and private bodies.
- Enforcement body
- criminal prosecution under Iowa's criminal code
- Obligation class
- Prohibition
- Audit expectation
- none
- Setting the rule reaches
- General
What it requires
- Do not disseminate, publish, distribute or post a visual depiction showing another person nude or engaged in a sex act without that person's consent, including a synthetic or deepfake image created, adapted or modified from their face, likeness or other distinguishing features.
- Exceptions cover 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.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 3.3Targeted application scope is specified and documented based on the system’s capability, established context, and AI system categorization.
- NIST AI 600-1
- GAI-RISK-08Information Integrity
- GAI-RISK-11Obscene, Degrading, and/or Abusive Content
- MIT mitigations Draft
- NIST Privacy Framework
- CT.PO-P1Policies, processes, and procedures for authorizing data processing (e.g., organizational decisions, individual consent), revoking authorizations, and maintaining authorizations are established and in place.
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-PREV-005System Acceptance Testing
- ETSI EN 304 223
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.
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.
What it makes you log
Logging duty
This is a criminal offense definition. It states no duty for anyone to create, keep, or produce a log or record of anything.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
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 synthetic and deepfake image language was added by 2024 Iowa Acts, chapter 1065 (House File 2240), section 3, whose effective date the Iowa Legislature's own bill history record states as .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app generates images with AI, generates video with AI or publishes adult content.
Back to the example · Lint your app
Page updated .