One in 5 young people in Spain said images of them naked created with Artificial Intelligence were shared online without their consent when they were under 18 and nearly all reported sexual violence of some kind online, according to a Save the Children study.
MADRID, 9 July 2025 – One in 5 young people in Spain said images of them naked created with Artificial Intelligence were shared online without their consent when they were under 18 and nearly all reported sexual violence of some kind online, according to a Save the Children study.
The study, released with a campaign to raise greater awareness about the risks online, was carried out in collaboration with the European Association for the Digital Transition and analysed the forms of sexual exploitation that affect children and adolescents on the Internet.
It was based on a survey of more than 1,000 young people aged 18 to 21 in which they were asked about their online perceptions and behaviour when under 18. The survey was conducted between 10 March and 26 April this year.
Among the findings were:
- 97% of respondents said they had suffered some type of sexual violence in digital environment as minors
One in 5 young people said someone had shared images created with AI to show them naked while a minor and without consent. - 33% of young people had had contact with an adult for sexual purposes in the digital environment, with more girls (36%) than boys (26%) having this contact via social media platforms and also online gaming and streaming
- 26% of respondents indicated that, as minors, they were pressured to send intimate or sexual content with 20% suffering threats or blackmail and more girls pressured to send this type of content with 28.5% versus 18.4% of boys
"These figures represent just the tip of the iceberg, since most cases are not known, partly due to the absence of reporting and partly due to the difficulties in detection, which increases when these events take place online," said Catalina Perazzo, Director of Influence and Territorial Development at Save the Children in Spain.
The report distinguished between three forms of online sexual abuse and exploitation.
First was the consumption, production and dissemination of child sexual abuse material or child pornography followed by sextortion, in which children and adolescents are coerced, blackmailed or threatened to send intimate or sexual material. Third was the use of AI tools to create this type of content and involuntary exposure to sexual content.
Content can be generated from abuse in physical environments or directly in the digital environment through manipulation, deception, threats or extortion, which induce the victim to produce images of sexual content.
"This is a complex phenomenon since the different forms of violence or exploitation that are analysed are not isolated phenomena: in many cases, they are connected to each other, are part of the same process or occur at the same time, so that a child can be a victim of several of them at the same time," said Perazzo.
Lucía López, a Save the Children educator in Alicante, Spain, said she had to deal with one such case in her work recently.
"A 12-year-old girl told me that she was being threatened by a person who told her that he would publish some photos of her naked, created with Artificial Intelligence, if she did not forward to all her contacts a video with sexual content that had reached her phone. The girl assured me that she had never forwarded photos of herself with that type of content, but she felt that she had caused that situation and that it was her fault," she said.
In the survey about 27% of the respondents said they had voluntarily sent intimate or sexual messages, photos or videos of themselves while aged under 18.
When asked about sharing intimate or sexual images, almost half of the respondents did not know that it could be dangerous (48%) while 46% believed it was normal or that it did not have negative consequences. About 42% were looking for attention, affection or validation, while 4 in 10 hoped to gain something in return.
Half of the respondents said that one of the main risks in the digital environment was contact with unknown people with possible bad intentions, but only one in three saw the consensual sending of intimate images to adults as a risk.
"But even when they are carried out voluntarily, these behaviours pose risks, because once the content is shared, it escapes the control of the person who generates it, opening the door to multiple forms of victimization. They can be redistributed without consent, used by adult people for sexual purposes, used for sextortion,” said Perazzo.
Save the Children Spain launched the campaign '#DerechosSinConexión’ along with the report to raise awareness about online safety.
Save the Children is calling for the deployment of legal measures to strengthen the online protection of children, to provide safe digital environments for children, and to incorporate digital education for all ages on the safe and responsible use of technologies in schools as well as training for teachers.
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