“The key to preventing cases like the one at La Salle School lies in strengthening emotional and sexual education in classrooms”. Patricia León, Director of Equality at the Tenerife Island Council, believes that the case of the two students from the institute in Santa Cruz who shared photos of classmates with fake nudes, created using artificial intelligence, is an opportunity for the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands to enhance educational programs in public and private schools on the islands.
This case, the first in Canary schools using technology to create images that harm the honour of girls, is “just the tip of the iceberg of a worrying trend”. “This goes way beyond artificial intelligence apps. It is an educational and social problem that concerns us all: educational communities, authorities, and society as a whole. More efforts need to be made to eradicate these sexist attitudes observed in a vulnerable population like minors, who objectify and humiliate women,” she emphasizes. According to León, minors must understand the seriousness of degrading classmates in this way.
The data and facts support this concern. A recent study indicates that nine out of ten adolescents in Tenerife consume pornography, which, like the apps used by La Salle children to manipulate images, is highly accessible on the internet.
Facade of La Salle San Ildefonso School in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. / María Pisaca
This study by University of La Laguna reveals, alongside the high pornography consumption among young people (89% of boys in the sample), that among young people in Tenerife, passive behaviour of a woman victim of gender-based violence tends to be negatively perceived, that more sexist attitudes are found among male adolescents and those who have been exposed to or consume pornography, and that educational intervention can be effective in the short and medium term to reduce this sexism.
Meanwhile, episodes like the one in the school in the Tenerife capital are on the rise in Spain. The most significant occurred at the beginning of the school year, last September, in Almendralejo (Extremadura). The spread of fake nude photos of dozens of girls, generated through artificial intelligence and circulated from phone to phone, has triggered a judicial investigation and simultaneously a heated social debate on the dark side of using this technology and what can be done to prevent it.
“What needs to be done is to increase and improve content on sexual and emotional education, whether through specific subjects or cross-curricular contents. And not only with students but also with teachers, the rest of the educational community, and children’s or adolescents’ families, especially starting from secondary education,” states the Island Director of Equality in Tenerife.
“I have the feeling that the focus on contents related to preventing sexism and machismo in education has decreased. We are talking about behaviours that can cause serious harm to girls and adolescents,” she points out. Patricia León highlights that the Island Council is finalizing the Strategic Plan against Gender-Based Violence aimed at preadolescents, adolescents, and young people.
Fabiola Hernández is a technician in the Area of Equality and Affective Sexual Education at the Ministry of Education. She affirms that the case at San Ildefonso La Salle School is the first in the Archipelago where a protocol has been activated due to the dissemination of fake nude images of female students in WhatsApp chats by schoolmates.
Stating that the General Directorate for the Regulation of Education, Inclusion and Innovation, the regional department on which its area depends, is “working and continues to work” to implement measures that strengthen equality in classrooms and prevent violent, sexist, or macho attitudes.
Indeed, she recalls the existence of the protocol that could be activated regarding events that had no precedent in the Canary Islands, that of the students at La Salle de Santa Cruz. “There were instructions for cases like the one that recently occurred. And they have been implemented: investigate what happened and report the facts to the Educational Inspection and the Youth Prosecutor’s Office,” she explains, to detail: “Once the conclusions of such a complex matter are reached, appropriate measures will be taken to prevent this type of behaviour.”
The app used in the case of Colegio de La Salle to manipulate images and obtain fake nudes of female students. / El Día
The Area of Equality and Sexual and Emotional Education for which Fabiola Hernández works is precisely the Educational body responsible for advising schools on these subjects. “We provide resources and advice. The schools themselves develop programs on emotional and sexual education, work with families… And we are always updating the contents because new challenges arise, as has happened now with the use of artificial intelligence, a very complex issue to address,” Hernández explains.
In the specific case of La Salle, the school ensures —and Education confirms— that they contacted the Educational Inspection, as well as the Youth Prosecutor’s Office, to address the situation caused by the discovery of about twenty photos of fake nudes of at least seven female students from this and other schools on the Island on the mobile phones of two 13-year-old students.
The Education Minister urges schools to enforce the regulation to restrict the use of mobile phones in classrooms
Poli Suárez, Educational Minister of the Government of the Canary Islands, emphasized the need for educational centers in the islands to control the use of mobile phones by students when addressing the case of Colegio La Salle San Ildefonso in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It was precisely on the devices of two high school students at this school where photos of fake nudes of classmates created with an artificial intelligence app appeared.
The Minister recalled the resolution from last January by the Ministry. The order for early childhood and compulsory education states that the use of mobile phones or other devices linked to mobile telephony will not generally be allowed. However, exceptionally, in secondary education and basic vocational training, following the pedagogical criteria approved by the teaching staff and with the approval of the School Council, schools may agree to their use as learning tools, for exclusively educational purposes. In these cases, the management team, the teaching staff, and the School Council will ensure that this decision does not entail discrimination against students who do not have a device, providing the necessary devices for these tasks.
