A couple has sex and one of them records it. Later, he decides to share that video with other people without the other’s permission. This is what happened to a minor from Gran Canaria with a player from the Real Madrid youth academy, who along with three other teammates, have been accused of an alleged crime of revealing secrets, for recording and disseminating a video with sexual content of the minor without his authorization. In the case of the 22 victims of Almendralejo, images of the minors with false nudes created with artificial intelligence were disseminated. One in every three cybersecurity incidents in Spain is a leak of stolen, sensitive, protected or confidential data, according to the National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE). In these cases, whether revenge porn or a deepfakeHow can you report and prevent the spread of this content?
Stating constancy
The first step is to record the publication, according to Pablo Duchement, a computer judicial expert specializing in online crimes perpetrated by and against minors. “We have to record the publication because if it is through the web, the content can disappear,” he explains. To do this, he recommends requesting a digital certificate of the publication of the content, free of charge, through companies such as eGarante: “With the certificate, no one can doubt that the publication was there, and where it was, and if it was deleted or is modified, nothing happens because the certificate itself continues to serve as evidence in a trial.”
Mónica Cuellas, professor of Technological Criminal Law at the International University of Catalonia (UIC) and criminal lawyer, agrees with Duchement that a digital certificate should be requested. Taking a screenshot of the post may not be enough in court. “A screenshot is easily contested because it is easily manipulated,” she explains. She makes it clear that the most important thing is “not to delete the contents of the device.” That’s what these witnesses are for. on-lineas defined by INCIBE.
Furthermore, in Spain INCIBE has a free telephone number, 017, active every day of the year (from 8 in the morning to 11 at night), to help solve cybersecurity problems, from a technical, psychosocial and legal. You can also contact them through WhatsApp (900116117), Telegram (@INCIBE017) and by e-mail. Last year, the line received more than 67,000 queries.
Report content
The next step is to report the content to the authorities. Go to the State Security Forces and Corps or to a court on duty, says Cuellas. If the situation is suffered by a minor, it will have to be his family or a guardian who reports the content for him, explains Duchement. The prison sentences that the perpetrators face are up to 1 year for disseminating sexual content of minors on the Internet without consent, as a crime of revealing secrets, and up to 9 years for disseminating sexual images of minors under 16 years of age created with artificial intelligence, which could be considered the crime of child pornography, explains Cuellas. You can also claim compensation through civil means.
Request deletion
In parallel, the search engine should be asked to remove personal images, since explicit content continues to cause harm as long as it remains on the network. If someone appears in Google Images without clothes, in a sexual act or in an intimate situation, you can ask the search engine to remove them. INCIBE recommends contacting the platform or page where you detect the publication and request its removal. If necessary, the situation must be reported on the INCIBE Hotline, and reported on the priority channel of the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD). In the case of the Almendralejo victims, the AEPD has opened an ex officio investigation.
Social networks also have their reporting channels. Meta, in addition to being able to report content from its platform, launched a new tool in February to combat sensitive material. Is called Take it Down (remove it, in English) and allows you to report the content and prevent the publication from being shared on other platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, Onlyfans or Pornhub. Instagram also has a section to protect exposed private information. In September, TikTok received a fine of 345 million euros from the European Union for putting the personal data of minors at risk on its platform. Despite this, it has a complaint section available on its website.
Prevention
To avoid these situations on the network, certain measures can be taken. Informing close people about the spread so that the same thing does not happen to them, not trusting strangers when sending personal data, images or videos on the Internet and never giving in to blackmail, are some of INCIBE’s recommendations for these cases. Periodically checking each person’s personal information published on the Internet, through search engines and social networks, is another good practice and is known as egosurfing.
In the case of the spread of fake images created with artificial intelligence on the internet, Duchement proposes that users do not publish their personal images. He also recommends against practicing sexting, that is, the exchange of sexual content through devices. “It’s safer to stand naked in front of your partner than to send them a photo without clothes,” she says.
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