The case of the female students at the Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini and the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, whose real and AI-manipulated images were shared in WhatsApp groups, has opened a can of worms boiling in Buenos Aires schools. Technology advances at the speed of light, but justice and the law move at a snail’s pace.
A report by the Ombudsman’s Office of the City of Buenos Aires, which surveyed 912 students aged 12 to 19, reveals that 13% of kids know of cases of digital violence involving deepfakes in their school environment. Although only 1% said they had been direct victims, 43% admitted to having received images or videos edited with AI. The figure is a thermometer of an exploding reality: gender violence has gone digital and found a perverse ally in artificial intelligence.
From the Specialized Fiscal Unit for Computer Crimes and Offenses (Ufedyci) of the City, prosecutor Daniela Dupuy confirmed that complaints keep rising. In 2023, four were filed; in 2024, five; in 2025, nine; and so far in 2026, four. ‘The problem is entrenched and international. Technological advances make it easier to commit crimes,’ said Dupuy, who faces a monumental legal challenge: how to punish crimes that outpace the law.
The so-called Ley Olimpia recognizes digital violence against women but does not specifically penalize the use of AI to create fake pornography. When the image combines real parts of a minor with an artificially generated body, Dupuy argues that Article 128 of the Penal Code applies, which punishes the production and distribution of child sexual exploitation material. But if the creation is 100% artificial, there is no regulation. ‘They are often mixed with real images and used to convince kids that it’s normal. Then it gets distributed on international networks,’ she warned.
In the Pellegrini case, those identified as perpetrators are allegedly students from that institution and the Nacional Buenos Aires who are minors, so they would be not criminally responsible. The new juvenile criminal regime, which lowers the age of criminal responsibility to 14, only starts in September. Meanwhile, Dupuy proposes a comprehensive approach: ‘If I give probation to an 18-year-old, he goes home without understanding the harm. We need to focus on prevention and awareness.’
The Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Tutelary Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the Buenos Aires ministries of Justice and Education are developing policies for children. From the Education Ministry, they noted that in May the Advisory Council on Digital Protection for Children and Adolescents was created, and they already have a protocol for situations of violence. At UBA schools, an interdisciplinary team must recommend actions and train teachers.
But Dupuy goes further: ‘We need legislators to adapt laws to technological advances.’ Among the projects in the works is the Ley Ema, which would create a national program for preventing digital violence in educational settings, promoted by the family of Ema Bondaruk, the teenager from Longchamps who committed suicide after intimate images were shared at her school.
The accessibility of AI tools has amplified violence. 98% of deepfake videos on the internet are pornographic and 99% of victims are women, according to the University of Zurich. One example was the trend of using Grok, X’s chatbot, to ‘undress’ photos of women. It generated up to 6,700 images per hour. Elon Musk responded with a photo of himself in a bikini, and only when California investigated did the company block the option in jurisdictions where it is illegal.
Prosecutor Genoveva Cardinali, specialized in gender violence, emphasized: ‘Women are the most exposed to the non-consensual dissemination of intimate images. In the United States, more than 90% of victims are women, and in most cases the dissemination is accompanied by insults and gender stereotypes. This is gender violence.’
While the laws sleep the sleep of the just, girls continue to be stripped by an algorithm. The question is: how much longer?
para mi esto es culpa de la izquierda progre q les enseñan q todo vale con 15 años desnudan a sus compañeras y la justicia no hace nada hay q volver a la ley del talion los pendejos tienen q ir presos ya no importa la edad basta de tibieza 1234
para mi esto es una forrada total la justicia no sirve pa nada los pibes desnudan con IA y quedan impunes culpa del capitalismo que mercantiliza los cuerpos bancamos a las pibas abajo el patriarcado y las leyes tibias firmado la tia rosa