All minors who have been identified as possible authors of the images of naked girls in Almendralejo (Badajoz) or who were allegedly involved in their dissemination are under 14 years old and therefore not liable to prosecution. Police sources confirm that the agents have already identified 11 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 13, three of whom allegedly managed the application through which the artificial images were created and another eight were part of the chat in which they were distributed. these photos.
The investigation remains in the hands of the National Police, which already has evidence on at least 21 victims. The public prosecutor’s office will intervene when it receives the police report, but the computer crime and juvenile crime police are already collecting data so that they can act if necessary. The age of the minors as determined by the police so far precludes the possibility of holding the perpetrators criminally responsible. However, neither the police nor the ministry rule out that other people could be involved, both those under the age of 14 and some over. In the latter case, criminal action could be taken.
Prosecutor’s sources point out that until the images are analyzed and the intervention of each person involved, it is not possible to determine what crimes may have been committed. However, the ministry is initially examining four types. In order for the first two cases to exist, the production or distribution of pornographic material (Article 189.1b of the Penal Code) and the possession of child pornography (189.5), the Penal Code requires that the images show an explicit sexual act in which a minor or a minor present sexual organs are seen “mainly for sexual purposes”. There could also be a crime against the moral integrity of minors (Article 173) or a crime against privacy (197) if the image of the girls’ faces was obtained through invasion of their privacy (e.g. through photographs placed in a were taken to prison). private area or taken from their private profiles on social networks).
The ministry cannot act criminally in the case of minors under the age of 14, but it can act in protection matters. In these cases, the public prosecutor’s office usually initiates a criminal case, but this is filed immediately and the case becomes the responsibility of the child protection prosecutor’s office. The researchers conduct an investigation of the adolescent’s situation and, after interviewing the adolescent and his family, decide what type of resource he needs and adapt to his behavior. As a rule, the minor is referred to one of the autonomous communities’ social-educational programs.
The recent reform of the law on the legal protection of minors introduces a special article, 17 bis, for “persons under the age of fourteen who come into conflict with the law”. This commandment provides that young people “will be included in a monitoring plan assessing their social and family situation, drawn up and implemented by the relevant social services of each autonomous community”. And he adds: “If the act of violence could constitute a crime against sexual freedom or compensation or gender-based violence, the monitoring plan must include a training module on gender equality.”
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Added to the police investigation is the intervention of the Spanish Data Protection Agency, which has launched preliminary investigations and, in parallel, contacted both the Almendralejo City Council and the Regional Government of Extremadura to disseminate information about you. You can request the removal of the images published on the Internet through the agency’s priority channel, as sources from this organization confirmed to Efe. This channel was created in 2019 and allows, in the event that someone uploads sexual or violent content without the consent of the person appearing in the images, to request its removal. Last year, in fact, 51 emergency operations were carried out to remove information, videos or audio of this type that had been published without authorization.
“I saw a naked photo of you.”
The events in Almendralejo came to light last week, at the start of the school year. Isabel, 14 years old, went to school on Tuesday with the hope of a new school year. That morning, after we stepped onto the terrace, a rumor spread from group to group. Nothing else was discussed among the students. The majority commented that photos of naked students were circulating on cell phones. Isabel, who is hiding her real name at her mother’s express request, then goes on break with her friends. Everyone in a state of shock. Suddenly a boy came up to her in the middle of the terrace:
—I saw a naked photo of you.
The young woman was afraid. When he came home at lunchtime, the first thing he did was inform his mother. “Mom, they say there’s a naked photo of me hanging around. That they did it through an application of artificial intelligence. I’m afraid. There are also girls who have received it.” Sara C., her 44-year-old mother, then contacted the mother of her daughter’s best friend, who had also just informed her family about the incident. After the conversation, the mothers start talking on the phone. The case had just exploded.
Now, seven days later, it is known that a group of children from the community took the photos of the Instagram and WhatsApp profiles of at least 20 girls from the city and even, according to the mother of one of the minors concerned, they photographed one another during a volleyball practice in a city pavilion and then uploaded all of these images to an artificial intelligence application. And so in just a few seconds fictional images are created that simulate a real girl’s nude. Later, someone created a video with pictures of seven of them. The mothers have organized themselves in a WhatsApp chat and there are already 27 members. Not all of them have seen photos of their daughters, but they have been told they exist. There was even a case of blackmailing a minor with a snapshot via a fake Instagram profile. This girl’s mother is Fátima G., 30 years old. Your daughter is 12 years old. Fátima found out about the case last Wednesday evening around 10 p.m. when a mother of her daughter’s friend called her on the phone and told her that she had seen a photo of her naked daughter. “It’s a setup,” he said.
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