Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez confirmed the call for a formal investigation, alleging that the platforms are undermining the mental health and fundamental rights of children. The government's move focuses on how recommendation algorithms may be amplifying illegal content rather than suppressing it. According to Minister Saiz, roughly 3 million explicit AI images were detected in a 14-day window, prompting the referral to the public prosecutor’s office to investigate potential crimes involving the degrading treatment of minors.

In response to the allegations, Meta claimed it maintains a strict stance against nonconsensual intimate imagery and has configured its AI tools to reject requests for explicit content. While X and TikTok did not provide immediate comments, Elon Musk’s X has faced intense scrutiny in Europe since the launch of its Grok AI software. The platform previously implemented new restrictions after a wave of nonconsensual deepfakes sparked international backlash, though Spanish officials suggest existing safeguards remain insufficient.

Strengthening Digital Protections

The push for a criminal probe follows a series of legislative efforts in Madrid aimed at curbing the influence of tech platforms on youth. The government is currently pursuing several initiatives to tighten digital oversight:

• A ban on social media access for children under the age of 16.
• The implementation of robust, mandatory age-verification systems.
• Increased legal liability for platforms that host or promote AI-generated sexual abuse material.

Spain’s aggressive stance mirrors a growing trend across the European Union to hold tech companies responsible for the content their technologies enable. By involving the public prosecutor, the Spanish government is signaling that the era of self-regulation for generative AI may be coming to an end, particularly when it concerns the protection of minors and the prevention of digital exploitation.