Spain’s data-protection agency has issued a fine to a minor who distributed AI-generated nude photographs, in the first case of its kind in the country.
In September 2023, parents of several families in the southwestern town of Almendralejo complained that their daughters had appeared in fake photographs. The application ClothOff had generated the images, using genuine pictures of the girls when they were clothed.
About 20 girls were in the images, which had started to circulate among local children on social media and to be posted on pornographic sites by the time parents were alerted.
Spain’s AEPD data-protection agency has now reported that it fined the individual responsible for creating the images €2,000, which was reduced to €1,200 due to prompt payment. This is the first time a sanction has been issued for AI-related image manipulation in Spain.
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The agency’s ruling is based on the unauthorised distribution of another party’s data. It states that “people have the [right to] power over availability of their personal data, including their image, as well as its distribution”.
This sanction is separate from criminal proceedings that were brought against boys involved in the same case. Last year, a Badajoz court gave 15 minors from Almendralejo one year’s probation for child pornography crimes and violating moral integrity for creating or distributing the images. They also had to attend an awareness course.
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The reaction by the families affected to the AEPD’s sanction has been mixed.
“Destroying the mental health of my daughter has only cost them €1,200,” one father, named as Pedro, told ABC newspaper. His daughter was 14 when the fake images of her were circulated and he says both she and her parents have required therapy since.
“Before, she was a girl who was open, confident, who wanted to do stuff,” he said. “Now she’s afraid of looking at her mobile, of going out, of meeting someone who has seen the pictures.”
However, Miriam Al Adib, the mother of another girl affected and who used her social media profile to publicise the case in 2023, said last year’s court ruling had satisfied her.
“We didn’t want blood, just justice,” she said. “We want these boys to be educated, not for them to pay money.”
She added: “I wouldn’t want a son of mine to have a criminal sentence like [last year’s] on his CV.”
Ms Al Adib was one of a panel of experts consulted by the government as it drew up draft legislation related to controls on digital activity for minors, which is currently in parliament. The Bill includes raising the age for use of social media to 16 and making parental controls more available on digital devices.
