The case of the two WhatsApp groups in Gipuzkoa in which pornographic material was sent to minors already reaches around a thousand students between 10 and 17 years old from nine schools. The Aldapeta María Ikastetxea school in San Sebastián, the largest in the province, is the epicenter of the case, although the geographical scope of those affected already reaches from Irun to Bizkaia and Cantabria. At this time, the Ertzaintza is already investigating the administrators of the groups, all of them adults, who may have committed serious crimes ranging from interacting with minors to show them sexual content to inducing child pornography. The administrators, in addition to pornographic material, also sent proclamations of a political nature, some linked to the extreme right.
The two chats under investigation had a similar way of functioning and shared the goal of becoming massive. They operated by invitation through two channels. On the one hand, the administrators directly invited minors; On the other hand, they wanted the minors to invite as many friends as possible.
In fact, the two groups had the following titles: ‘Get people in until you reach a million’ and ‘Get people in until you become famous’. The groups were created two weeks ago, growing to over a thousand participants since then. From there, the administrators distributed pornography, including, allegedly, child pornography, as well as memes, homophobic, sexist comments, or political proclamations linked to the extreme right.
At the moment, two San Sebastian schools whose students had been invited to these chats have filed complaints with the Ertzaintza: Aldapeta Maria Ikastetxea and Deutsche Schule San Alberto Magno. In any case, there are seven more schools with a high number of affected students: Zurriola Ikastola, St. Patrick’s English School, Jesuitak Donostia, Herri Ametsa Ikastola, Santo Tomas Lizeoa, Luberri and Zubiri Manteo.
In all these centers, the management has sent circulars to parents to inform them of the situation and ask for their collaboration. Basically, they are informed that students from the center have been invited to participate in these chats, they are asked, if their children have been invited, to report the facts and, thirdly, they are urged to leave the chats. groups, although without deleting the content received.
The Ertzaintza has been aware of this case since last Friday, when the mother of a 5th grade student alerted the management of the Aldapeta school that her son was participating in one of the chats and reported the nature of the content that was circulating. This center began to act from the first moment, both communicating the situation to the parents and going to the Basque Police.
This case has come to light at a time of growing awareness about the dangers of uncontrolled use of mobile phones at an early age and when groups of mothers and fathers are multiplying, calling for far-reaching measures to avoid situations of this type, in order to delay the age at which minors begin to use mobile phones and, in parallel, seeking to ensure that access to mobile phones is done in a gradual and guided manner.
