Artificial intelligence.
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At least 20 teenage girls said they saw AI-generated naked photos of themselves, per Spanish media.
An investigation is underway after parents filed complaints, according to El País.
Spreading such photos is punishable by up to nine years in prison, a Spanish lawyer said.
Teenage girls in Spain are seeing AI-generated nudes of themselves spreading on social media, according to Spanish media reports.
Isabel, 14, whose name was changed at her mother’s request, told the Spanish newspaper El País that AI-generated naked photos of her were being passed around her school, and had become the center of discussion among students.
One boy even came up to her and told her: “I saw a naked photo of you,” she told the newspaper.
The 14-year-old is one of at least 20 teenage girls from the town of Almendralejo who have seen AI-generated naked photos of themselves spread on social media, according to Spanish media.
The mothers of the girls learned about the growing number of cases after calling each other and sharing their stories in a WhatsApp group that one of them created.
As of Monday, at least seven people had filed complaints with the local police, per El País.
The local Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office has now launched an investigation and identified several alleged perpetrators, local police sources told the newspaper.
The local Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comments.
Fátima Gómez, the mother of one 12-year-old girl, told the regional broadcaster Canal Extremadura that she filed a complaint last Friday after discovering photos online.
Gómez said a boy sent her daughter an AI-generated naked photo of herself on Instagram after she refused to give him money, per the regional broadcaster.
Her daughter blocked the boy’s profile, which the local police believe could be a fake, she told the broadcaster.
Miriam Al Adib, a mother of four teenage daughters, told El País that her “heart skipped a beat” when her 14-year-old daughter showed her an AI-generated photo of her.
“If I didn’t know my daughter’s body, this photo looks real,” she told the Spanish newspaper.
In an Instagram video, Al Adib said police told her that the perpetrators may have uploaded the photos onto OnlyFans or child pornographic sites.
“This, girls, won’t be tolerated. STOP THIS NOW. Girls, don’t be afraid to report such acts. Tell your mothers. Affected mothers, tell me, so that you can be in the group that we created,” she said, according to the El País translation.
A picture of one of the girls reportedly had the fly logo of the AI-powered app ClothOff. The company’s website says it “undresses anybody with our free service,” per the newspaper.
ClothOff didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. Its website says it doesn’t take any responsibility for images created using its site.
Under Spain’s Criminal Code, the sale, distribution, exhibition, provision, and facilitation of child pornographic material are punishable by up to nine years in prison.
AI-generated images fall under this legislation, Fernando Cumbres, a lawyer specializing in criminal, family, civil, and administrative law, told Canal Extremadura.