More than 20 girls, all aged between 11 and 17, have come forward to local authorities after discovering the fake nude images of themselves online in the south-western province of Badajoz.
The pictures were created using the photos of the girls fully clothed, then processed by an application that generates a fake image of the person without any clothes on.
Many of the original clothed images were taken from victim’s social media accounts.
María Blanco Rayo, the mother of a 14-year-old, told the BBC her daughter came to her about the pictures.
“I asked her if she had taken any photos of herself nude, and she said, 'no, Mum, these are fake photos of girls that are being created a lot right now and there are other girls in my class that this has happened to as well.'"
Rayo said the parents of the 28 girls affected have formed a support group.
She said her daughter is doing well, but some of the victims “won’t even leave the house.”
Local police are now investigating. The BBC have reported that at least 11 boys have been identified as being involved, either creating the images or distributing them online.
The suspects are believed to be between 12 and 14. In Spain, minors can only face criminal charges from aged 14.
Javier Izquierdo, head of children's protection for Spain’s cyber-crime unit, told Spanish media these kinds of crimes are no longer confined "to the guy who downloads child porn from the Dark Web or from some hidden internet forum".
He added: "That obviously is still going on, but now the new challenges we are facing are the access that minors have at such an early age [to such technology], such as in this case."
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