Commented case 03 of 6 · illustrative
An intimate image that circulated among adolescents
An illustrative, composite case: no fact, person or school in this account is real. An intimate image of a third-year secondary student begins to circulate through the phones of her class. The case shows three planes that are not to be confused: the specialised justice system that applies to the adolescents who spread it, the school’s immediate duties, and the criminal response for adults if any of them takes part in the chain.
Step by step
What happened
Monday, 9:15 a.m.
A third-year secondary student comes into the Orientación y Psicología office (the school guidance and psychology service) in tears. An intimate photo of her, which she sent months ago to a classmate she was in a relationship with, is circulating through at least three messaging groups in her class. Someone forwarded it at the weekend. There are already memes.
9:25 a.m. — The first thing
The counsellor does not ask for her phone or ask her to show the image. She asks how she is, whether she feels safe, and who in her family can be with her. Then she explains, plainly, that what was done to her has a name and consequences, and that she did nothing that justifies what is happening.
10:00 a.m. — The leadership acts on three fronts at once
- Protection. Support for the student is put in place and her family is called in the same day.
- Containment. The classes are told, with no names and no details, that forwarding that content is not a joke: it is a very serious breach and may amount to a criminal offence. Students are asked to delete it and not to forward it.
- External route. The referral to the Fiscalía de Niñez y Adolescencia (the child and adolescent prosecutor’s office) is prepared and the families of the adolescents involved are informed.
11:30 a.m. — What the school does NOT do
Nobody searches students’ phones. Nobody downloads, saves or forwards the image “as evidence”: keeping it or sending it through an informal channel would create a new problem. Nobody stages a confrontation between the student and those who spread it. Nobody publishes a statement with names. The leadership documents what was reported to it, by whom and when, and leaves the tracing of the content to the authorities.
Tuesday
The Equipo de Gestión (the school management team) applies the disciplinary route to the three adolescents identified as having spread it: prior mediation, a hearing, a proportionate measure communicated in writing to them and to their families, with follow-up. None of them is expelled.
The counsellor opens a space with the class about why forwarding is also spreading. A student asks: “And what if I only received it and didn’t send it?” The answer is honest: receiving is not the same as forwarding, and deleting it is the right thing to do.
Weeks later
The student is still at the school. Her family received guidance about filing a complaint. The school added to its Reglamento de Convivencia (the school coexistence rules) a digital-citizenship section it did not have before.
The legal reading
What the law protects here
What the law protects here
Spreading intimate content obtained in a private setting, without consent and capable of seriously affecting privacy or dignity, is a criminal offence Art. 192Ley 74-25. When the person affected is a child or adolescent, or where there is an intent to discredit, blackmail or take revenge, the scale rises to prisión mayor (greater imprisonment) Art. 192Ley 74-25. Creating, publishing or spreading false or altered images, videos or audio “by means of montages or by any other form” without consent, damaging honour, good name or one’s own image, is punished with two to five years of prisión menor (lesser imprisonment) Art. 192, Párr. ILey 74-25. The law does not name artificial intelligence; the open-ended formula “any other form” is what, in our view, reaches content generated with it. Memes and humiliating posts also fit within cyber-harassment Art. 123Ley 74-25, and disclosing the image of an adolescent in a way that stigmatises them is aggravated Art. 186Ley 74-25.
But who did it matters. Here those who spread it are adolescents: they answer before the criminal justice system for adolescents Art. 225Ley 136-03, whose declared purpose is to educate and to include Art. 326Ley 136-03, with socio-educational sanctions and deprivation of liberty only as an exception Art. 336Ley 136-03. A student under thirteen is not criminally responsible in any case Art. 223Ley 136-03. If an adult — a relative, a former student, any third party — takes part in the chain of distribution, then the penalties of the Code do apply Art. 192Ley 74-25.
Which decisions were protective, and why
- Attending to the student first and naming responsibility correctly. Blaming the person who originally sent the photo inverts the protection the law establishes.
- Separating the three planes. School discipline Art. 23Ordenanza 05-2023, referral to the Fiscalía de Niñez y Adolescencia Art. 30Ordenanza 05-2023 and protection of the victim run in parallel; none replaces another.
- Not handling the content. Saving or forwarding the image, even with good intentions, exposes staff and contaminates the evidence.
- Working with the whole class. The conversation about forwarding defuses the circulation better than any sanction.
The tempting shortcuts and what they risked
Searching phones for the image would have gone beyond what the Normas de Convivencia (the school-coexistence rules) authorise, which only provide for holding a device until the end of the school day Art. 18Ordenanza 05-2023. Expelling those who spread it as a sanction is prohibited during the school year; the rule’s exception — situations that endanger integrity and safety — requires a joint assessment with the school’s internal and external bodies and review by the Dirección General de Orientación y Psicología (the national guidance and psychology directorate), not a decision by the school leadership Art. 27Ordenanza 05-2023 Art. 33Ordenanza 05-2023. And “sorting it out internally” without referring it would have left the mandatory protection route unactivated Art. 14Ley 136-03.
A transferable practice
Write into the Reglamento de Convivencia, before you need it, the no-forwarding rule: what the school does with reported intimate content, who receives it, who does not keep it, and to whom it is referred.
The team’s commentary
What this case teaches
Español — The Spanish version is the reference text — the legal verification described in the audit report was carried out on it.
Audit report — the independent legal review of this material, with the errors we found and corrected (page in Spanish).
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