The digital violence has become a growing concern for families and schools. The spread of intimate images without consent, cyberbullying and the creation of false content through artificial intelligence can have a strong impact on privacy, self-esteem, and the emotional health of children and adolescents.
In this context, the province of Buenos Aires enacted the Ley Ema, a regulation aimed at preventing and addressing digital violence in the school setting. What does this legislation change, and why is it important to stop blaming those who suffer these aggressions?
In this column, Natalia Denisse Rodríguez, a lawyer specializing in Family and Children’s Law, university professor, and cofounder of the DR Law Firm, reflects on the scope of this tool, the role of educational institutions, and the need to build safer digital environments for the younger generations.
Ley Ema: una respuesta frente a la violencia digital que sufren chicos y adolescentes
By Natalia Denisse Rodríguez
As women, lawyers, and advocates for the rights of children and women, we cannot view this issue solely through the cold letters of a law or a judicial file. Behind every screenshot that goes viral, every deepfake created “as a joke,” every intimate photo shared in a chat group, or any humiliating conduct — long known as bullying — there is a girl or a boy who suffers in solitude, feels paralyzing shame, and believes that their social life or future is finished.
That is the true dimension of the problem. Therefore, the enactment of Ley Ema seems not only necessary, but deeply urgent and non-postponable.
For a long time, the response of the environment to these situations was marked by blame or inaction. Victims were told: “Why did you take that photo?”. Schools were told: “Since it happened on WhatsApp and outside school hours, it isn’t our responsibility to act.”
That perspective abandons the person suffering the aggression and validates the one who commits it. Ley Ema challenges that unfair logic: it focuses on prevention and awareness and, fundamentally, on those who disseminate, manipulate, or generate content without consent, not on the person who trusted or simply saw their image violated.
Educational institutions cannot turn a blind eye with the argument that “the networks are a separate world.” The suffering of that child enters the classroom every day. The law provides teachers and principals with a framework to act with containment, speed, and sensitivity, without exposing or revictimizing anyone.
Un camino de construcción normativa: de Olimpia y Belén a la Ley Ema
This horizon of protection does not arise from scratch. It fits into a legal framework that, in Argentina, responds to historical gaps in confronting media and digital violences.
The Olimpia Law (27.736) marked a turning point by formally incorporating digital violence into Law 26.485 on the Protección Integral a las Mujeres. In this way, it institutionally recognized that digital privacy is a human right and that its violation constitutes an explicit form of gender-based violence.
In the same vein, the Belén Bill highlighted the need to address the punitive gap in the Penal Code regarding the non-consensual dissemination of intimate material.
However, from the family court and in our daily work with children we noted that a fundamental link was missing: early prevention and a specific approach in the space where daily life of children, girls, and adolescents unfolds, that is, schools.
The invisible danger of artificial intelligence
Today we face a qualitative leap: the creation of intimate deepfakes using artificial intelligence. This is not a simple “digital prank” or a harmless use of technology. It is a deeply violent aggression and, in many cases, sexist, that violates a person’s identity and dignity.
For the law and for the psychology of a teenager, the psychological harm is exactly the same, whether the image is real or created through algorithmic manipulation.
We cannot require new generations to grow up in a hyperconnected world and, at the same time, leave them unprotected when that digital environment turns hostile.
The Ley Ema understands that the response must be collective. In that sense, it includes mandatory coordination in these cases with specialized state agencies, such as Local Services for Childhood, the comprehensive care lines 102 and 144, judicial bodies specialized in cybercrime, violence or criminal matters —if the case requires— and mental health institutions.
The Ley Ema is, at its most intimate essence, an act of collective empathy and adult responsibility. It is the State and the community telling our girls and boys: “You are not alone, it is not your fault, we hear you, and as a society we have the tools to protect your privacy, your honor, and your peace of mind.”
We cannot ask new generations to live in a hyperconnected world and leave them alone when they need protection. Guaranteeing this minimum floor of care is, nothing less than, guaranteeing them the right to live without fear.
Natalia Denisse Rodríguez. Lawyer specializing in Family and Children’s Law. University lecturer in Law. Communicator and legal analyst. Co-founder of DR Law Firm
