The minors identified as alleged authors of the fake nudes created with artificial intelligence in Almendralejo (Badajoz) are between 12 and 14 years old and "a priori everything indicates that they are from the victims' environment," according to the Police.
The head of the Minor Protection Group of the Central Cybercrime Unit, Javier Izquierdo, informed journalists this Wednesday that twenty-two complaints submitted by the parents of the victims, who are the same age as the alleged perpetrators, have been collected.
Some of the minors identified are "over 14 years old, so they would be liable under the Minor Criminal Law," said Izquierdo, who is attending an international conference organized by the Police against telematic fraud and sexual exploitation in Malaga. children through new technologies.
He recalled that the creation of nudes with artificial intelligence is "something covered by the Penal Code and, even though they are manipulated images, if they are realistic they are considered child pornography."
To non-attributable minors "the Juvenile Law does not apply, therefore it is the Prosecutor's Office's decision" regarding their fate, while "those who are attributable would be subject to the Juvenile Criminal Law."
If the perpetrators were of legal age, "the penalties for producing child pornography range from 2 to 5 years" in prison, and if the victims are under 16 years of age "the penalty is aggravated from 5 to 9 years," he specified.
When asked by journalists, he indicated that he does not know if the alleged perpetrators identified are from Almendralejo, because the investigation has been carried out by the police station of that city, "but a priori everything indicates that they are and that they are from the victims' own environment. ".
The Police, who have already taken statements from the victims, do not expect more complaints to be filed, and this Thursday they will report to the Badajoz Juvenile Prosecutor's Office.
Regarding the dissemination of the images, he pointed out that "there is no evidence that they have left the WhatsApp and Telegram groups in which they originated."
He added that it is "something very complex" to remove these images, because "once they enter the Internet, it is difficult to remove them completely."
However, "once the investigation is carried out, an attempt will be made to intervene in the mobile phones of the minors involved to try to minimize the possible exposure of the images on the Internet."
According to Izquierdo, the Police had previously known of cases in which artificial intelligence had been used for the production of child pornography, "but until now they had not come to public opinion in this way."
Therefore, similar police investigations had already been carried out, to which an attempt was made to "give as little publicity as possible to avoid the callback effect that they could produce."
He has highlighted that "any person, misusing technology, is a potential producer of images of child pornography, and it is no longer necessary to have access to a minor, but with any photograph pornography can be produced."
These are "extremely serious events", so the population must be "made aware of the risk of this technology and its misuse", and in particular minors, to whom "it is not about scaring them, but to educate them in a new cybersecurity culture.
The Penal Code already "recognised a few years ago" the production of images "of a minor with sexual connotations, even if they are not real, being realistic."
If these are images of adults, "we will have to explore what possibilities the Penal Code offers, either through the crime of discovery and disclosure of secrets or against moral integrity," but "there is still no jurisprudence in the courts on these facts," Izquierdo stated.
