Spain Probes Platforms Over AI Child Abuse Images

Spain has moved to open a new legal front against major social media platforms, asking prosecutors to investigate Meta, TikTok and X over allegations that AI-generated child sexual abuse material has circulated on their services. The announcement, made on 17 February 2026, signals a sharper turn in Europe’s response to the way generative AI can accelerate the creation and spread of illegal images online.

According to Reuters, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the Spanish state must act to protect children’s “safety, privacy and dignity,” pointing to a technical report drawn up across three ministries. The investigation comes as European governments debate stricter rules for adolescents’ access to social media and weigh the responsibility of platforms whose algorithms decide what content is pushed, recommended or amplified. (Reuters)

AI is changing the scale of the problem

At the heart of Spain’s move is a fear long flagged by child-protection experts: that generative tools can produce abusive material faster than traditional detection systems can keep up. Reuters notes that Spain is stepping in amid broader scrutiny of how platforms’ recommendation systems, moderation practices and design choices can contribute to harmful outcomes for minors. (Reuters)

This concern has been growing across Europe as regulators increasingly treat online safety as a “systems” issue — not only about individual posts, but about the product design and algorithms that can drive exposure. Earlier this month, The European Times reported on EU scrutiny of TikTok’s “addictive design”, where features like infinite scroll and autoplay were cited as risk factors, particularly for younger users.

Parallel regulatory pressure beyond Spain

Spain’s prosecutorial request lands in a wider European context of enforcement and investigations. Reuters reports that Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has opened a formal probe into X’s AI chatbot Grok, examining the processing of personal data and concerns about the generation of sexualised content involving minors. (Reuters)

Separately, Brussels has also been intensifying scrutiny of online services under its digital rulebook, the Digital Services Act (DSA), including cases focused on protecting minors from illegal and harmful content. The European Times previously covered how the EU began using the DSA to address minors’ exposure to pornography in formal investigations into major adult-content platforms.

What comes next

Spain’s prosecutors will now determine the scope and direction of the inquiry. The broader question is whether the combination of national investigations, EU-level enforcement, and data-protection oversight can meaningfully curb AI-enabled abuse — or whether the pace of innovation will continue to outstrip the safeguards built into today’s platforms.

For Europe, 17 February 2026 marks another step in a fast-emerging reality: child protection online is no longer only a policing or content-moderation challenge. It is also a governance test of how digital products are designed, how algorithms operate, and how quickly states can enforce the rules they have written.