Warnings emerged from the United States after Microsoft detected activity tied to a person living in a municipality. The case involved suspected child sexual abuse material stored in cloud services. Artificial intelligence systems are increasingly used to identify and trace such material across the internet. The defendant appeared in Alicante’s court on Thursday after the Spanish authorities received a report from the United States. Online crime often leaves a digital footprint that big internet companies can track and trace.
The defendant used an application to join chat groups where child sexual abuse material, including photos and videos, was shared. Minors were depicted in explicit ways. During 2018, around one hundred files were gathered using a mobile device and later saved on a personal computer. Some of these files were uploaded to Microsoft OneDrive, triggering alarms about the presence of such content.
The defendant, represented by lawyer Francisco Moreno Arranz, claimed that the files were never shared with others and that they were kept only for personal viewing. Once it became clear that some files had been accessed by third parties, prosecutors initially sought a five-year prison term. By the end of the case, however, the Public Ministry proposed a one-year sentence after failing to prove that the material was distributed to others.
Complaint
OneDrive is a cloud storage service that lets users save files, share access links, or create groups with broad access to stored information. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the United States received a warning from Microsoft that a user in Spain was storing child pornography on their devices. NCMEC handles complaints from citizens and major internet providers about such material online.
In this case, Microsoft was warned about uploads of child pornography to its servers. North American authorities then passed the information to the Technological Crime Group of the Alicante Judicial Police Brigade. They conducted a home search and seized illegal material at the request of the instruction, under the direction of a court in Ibi.
Only owned files were considered criminal in this scenario.
The case is not the first in the province where major platforms’ algorithms flagged minors in pornographic material. Last May, another Alicante resident faced charges for files kept on Google Drive. In that case, the material appeared to be held privately, with no evidence of distribution to third parties. During the house search, agents did not locate any files on the individual’s computers. That case highlighted the difficulty of proving distribution when content is stored privately.
At first, the Public Ministry suspected that the defendant had shared the files with others. There was even a possibility that third parties could access the folders. This doubt prevented an agreement between the Public Ministry and the defense. Yet expert reports could not conclusively show that the material was shared, leaving the case focused on the presence of pornographic material rather than proof of distribution.
Security forces warn that there is a growing use of virtual storage platforms to keep such files. Some users employ encryption to bypass checks by automated detection systems, making it harder to locate banned content. Cloud storage offers easy access from multiple devices, allows rapid sharing, and enables quick deletion to erase traces if a record appears.
Conviction in another case involved thousands of files.
The Provincial Court sentenced an Alicante resident to two years in prison for interfering with thousands of files containing child sexual material found during a house search. In the final stage of the hearing, the defendant admitted guilt. Police found mass downloads of restricted content from various peer-to-peer apps, leading to a home search on September 19, 2019.
The accused handed over a total of 1,364 DVDs stored in 56 tubs and four notebooks listing their contents. Some videos showed minors aged four to seven in explicit situations. Other materials indicated that attached minors and related items penetrated personal spaces.
Such files were also found on analysis of the home computer and a 500 GB hard disk.
The decision imposes a four-year sentence and probation from any profession related to minors, in addition to the two-year prison term agreed upon by the Prosecution and the defense. After the trial concluded with consent, the sentence became final and an appeal was not available.