Ley Mica Ortega
Law 27.590 “Mica Ortega” was passed in November 2020, creating the National Program for the Prevention and Awareness of Grooming or Cyberbullying against children and adolescents.
It was regulated by Decree 407/2022, which established the Ministry of Social Development (through the National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents, and Families) as the implementing authority and created a national observatory tasked with monitoring legal compliance and preparing annual reports.
This program includes public awareness campaigns, school training, tools for reporting cases of grooming, and monitoring by the National Observatory. A recent public report from the Observatory on its performance is still unknown, although there is a legal mandate to issue annual reports.
The law has been in force nationwide since 2020 and has been regulated since July 2022. The National Observatory formally exists, although compliance reports do not appear to have been published recently.
Data on the actual scope of implementation is lacking: how many schools have already received training, how many complaints have been recorded?
Absence of recent public reports from the National Observatory, which should assess progress and gaps.
Inequality between jurisdictions: implementation is more visible in some provinces than in others.
For the implementation of this law and other necessary protections in digital environments, the existence of specialized prosecutors' offices and protocols for cybercrimes and crimes against children and adolescents is essential.
Specialized Prosecutors' Offices and Generalist Approaches in Argentina
Some Conclusions:
Only about six jurisdictions have prosecutors' offices specializing in grooming or cybercrime.
Most provinces refer cases to ordinary criminal prosecutors' offices, which limits investigative capacity, technical specialization, and support for victims.
This creates territorial inequity in access to justice for children and adolescents who are victims of grooming.
Where specialized prosecutors' offices exist, coordination with children's, education, and security departments is more effective.
Where they don't exist, delays, confusion in referrals, and a lack of comprehensive follow-up of grooming cases are evident.
Conclusions
The Mica Ortega Law is now legally active and regulated nationwide. Today, five years after its entry into force, there is still much to be done.
Adhesions
Concrete steps have been taken with provincial and municipal support, implementing local prevention and awareness programs.
Specialization
Aún falta mucho para contar con fiscalías especializadas en estos temas a nivel federal. Si bien existen muchas provincias que avanzaron, existen vacancias.
Evaluation
La evaluación de su impacto real aún es limitado por la falta de datos cuantitativos actualizados y la ausencia de reportes del Observatorio Nacional.
Articulation
Effective deployment continues to depend on each jurisdiction and the institutional commitment in each territory.