The case of the Real Madrid youth team for the alleged dissemination of a video of the sexual act of a 16-year-old girl with one of the players (the four involved are very young, between 19 and 20 years old) via WhatsApp in other friends or colleagues is not an isolated case. This happens, and often, even if these cases do not acquire the notoriety of what happened in the Canary Islands. In fact, half of young people between the ages of 15 and 29 are aware of sending intimate images or videos to their surroundings, according to Alejandro Gómez Madrid, sociologist and researcher at the Reina Joventut Centre.
The reasons for these behaviors are multiple, but fundamentally they are explained by ignorance or by not wanting to understand the serious consequences for the person (mostly women) whose images are disseminated without consent, according to the experts. "They don't think about the victims", they say.
And they also don't foresee the legal consequences that can lead to prison terms. Because spreading intimate images or videos without consent on social networks (including WhatsApp) is a crime. It has been since 2015 and even more so with the law of only yes is yes, which not only punishes the protagonists who spread them, but also the third parties who forward them.
Teenagers and young people don't know, yet? Alejandro Gómez's answer is clear, no, at least not as an obligation to report, because the information does not reach them through the channels they control, which are none other than those of the always volatile social networks. "Ten years after the start of the intensive use of the networks, we still don't know what can be done and disseminated or not", affirms Gómez.
This lack of knowledge is added to the little concern that young people have about the risk of sending videos or photos of their intimate and personal life. Only half of those aged between 15 and 29 (and the majority are women) are concerned about the dissemination of photos and images without consent, Gómez Madrid explains. This percentage decreases to 70 or 80% in teenagers.
The lack of knowledge surrounding the rights (and duties) relating to data protection is also detected in the little use that is made of the priority channel for reporting cases of cyberbullying, the dissemination of images of sexual content or harassment that it offers , since 2019, the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD). "Complaints that arrive are read in less than 24 hours and if the case is serious, the contents are ordered to be removed as a precautionary measure immediately. But last year there were only 46 complaints, mostly from women under 30 who were victims of the dissemination of images with sexual content", explains the president of the AEPD, Mar España.
But the fact that there is little awareness of privacy and the right to honor both among minors and among parents does not exempt them from responsibility, warned the president of the AEPD. And he emphasizes that sharing this type of digital content entails civil penalties (fines that, in the case of minors, must be paid by the parents), but also criminal and employment consequences.
And she is very clear when she states that the policy of the AEPD is "zero tolerance", even if the perpetrators are minors. "We are applying fines of between 5,000 and 10,000 euros, because we believe that children and adults must avoid these behaviors and, if they don't do it out of conviction, maybe they do it out of fear of the sanctions", he emphasized.
what to do From the FAD they are clear: make them aware from an early age and hold practical workshops so that teenagers understand what intimacy is.
