Te Protejo Colombia: The Hotline for AI-Made Abuse Images

In 2025, Colombia’s child-protection hotline, Te Protejo, processed more than 15 cases in which AI tools were used to create hundreds of illegal sexual images of minors. Red PaPaz, the parents’ network that runs the line, released the figure for Safer Internet Day in February 2026, El Colombiano reported. Te Protejo Colombia is an anonymous reporting channel: you paste the link, describe what you saw, and trained staff route it to the police, the child-welfare agency or the platform.

Fifteen cases sounds small. It is not a measure of how common the problem is; it is the number that reached one hotline. Behind it sit hundreds of images, each showing a real child who never posed for it. Here is how the line works, why these images are treated as abuse even though they are fabricated, what Colombian law does and does not yet say, and how any parent, in Colombia or elsewhere, can report safely.

Key Takeaways

• Te Protejo is anonymous and free. It is run by Red PaPaz, is not a government agency, and forwards reports to the ICBF, the National Police, the prosecutor’s office, the Education Ministry and platforms such as Meta, TikTok, Google and Discord.
• Report the link, never the file. Hotlines need the URL. Downloading, saving or forwarding sexual images of a minor can itself be a crime.
• Fabricated images still count as abuse for UNICEF and child-protection hotlines, because a real child’s likeness is used and the harm is real.
• Colombian criminal law has a gap. Article 218 of the Penal Code refers to “real representations” of sexual activity involving minors, and how it applies to fully AI-generated images has not been clearly settled.
• Outside Colombia, parents can use their country’s INHOPE hotline, Te Protejo Latino’s country selector, or NCMEC’s Take It Down for images of anyone under 18.

If your child is in crisis or talking about harming themselves: in Colombia, call Línea 141 of the ICBF (children and adolescents, 24 hours) or Línea 106 (mental health); emergencies 123. In the US, call or text 988 or text HOME to 741741. Elsewhere, find a line at findahelpline.com.

What Te Protejo Colombia is and how it works

Te Protejo is a reporting hotline for situations that put children and adolescents at risk, online or offline, in Colombia. According to its own description, it was founded in 2012 as Colombia’s first virtual reporting line for child protection, is operated by the Corporación Red PaPaz as part of the Viguías Safer Internet Centre, and has channeled more than 240,000 reports. It is a member of INHOPE, the international network of hotlines against child sexual abuse material.

Te Protejo states plainly that it “is not a State entity, nor does it replace the authorities.” Its job is to receive, filter and route. The reporting form asks who is affected, their approximate age, and which category fits: sexual exploitation material of children, cyberbullying, or another situation affecting a minor. It requires a URL or link. You do not have to give your name.

What happens after you report

Hotlines in the INHOPE network follow a common pattern. According to INHOPE’s reporting guidance, trained analysts at the national hotline review the URL and decide whether the material is illegal. If it is, the hotline works with law enforcement and internet providers to get it removed. INHOPE’s network spans many countries, and its site keeps a map of national hotlines.

That is why INHOPE insists on the URL and nothing else: “Please only submit the URL of the content you want to report, never send files as attachments.” It also says reporting suspected abuse material does not put you in legal trouble, and that downloading, saving or sharing it can be illegal.

What the 2025 numbers show, and what they do not

Red PaPaz’s figures come from two of its services. The Te Protejo line counted the AI cases. Te Guío, its helpline, reported rising concern from children, teens and families about fake sexual images and about AI “agents” used to build emotional and sexual bonds with young people.

Three cautions apply. First, these are cases a hotline processed, not a survey of how many Colombian children are affected. Second, a single case can involve many images and many victims. Third, the trend Red PaPaz describes (“on the rise”) is the organization’s assessment, not a published time series.

Red PaPaz is also an advocacy group, and it says so. It asked the Colombian state to require effective age verification, safety by design and proactive detection from platforms, and it signed an international declaration, backed by more than 100 organizations, calling for an immediate global ban on AI “undressing” tools. “In Colombia we keep treating the impact of digital platforms on children as if it were a parenting decision, and it is not,” executive director Carolina Piñeros told El Colombiano. “It is a structural problem of design and of a lack of rules for platforms.”

Why AI-made images are treated as abuse

A child sexual abuse image made with AI is a fabricated sexual depiction of a minor, often built from an ordinary photo of a real child. No camera recorded abuse. So why do hotlines and UNICEF treat it the same way?

A UNICEF brief published in February 2026 gives the reasoning. “Even when no ‘real’ child is directly involved, the individual and societal harm is real,” it says: the content normalizes the sexualization of children, can fuel demand, and victimizes the children whose likeness is used. It also makes investigators’ work harder, because analysts must work out whether an image shows a real child in urgent danger. And a child “can now have their right to protection violated without ever sending a message or even knowing it has happened.”

The scale data UNICEF cites is sobering and still partial:

• The UK’s Internet Watch Foundation found nearly 14,000 suspected AI-generated images on a single dark-web forum in one month, almost a third confirmed as criminal.
• Research by UNICEF, ECPAT and INTERPOL under the Disrupting Harm project found that across 11 countries, at least 1.2 million children reported having their images manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes in the past year, as many as 1 in 25 children in some countries. Full country results are due later in 2026.

Much of the peer-to-peer problem is ordinary classmates with “nudify” apps, not organized offenders. Those apps use an image-generation model to replace the clothed part of a photo with invented pixels. The result is fake, and the harm to the child is not. Our earlier explainer on how deepfakes work technically goes deeper on the mechanism.

What Colombian law says, and the gap

Colombia’s main child sexual abuse material crime is Article 218 of the Penal Code, as amended by Law 1336 of 2009. According to the Senate’s official text, it punishes anyone who photographs, films, produces, distributes, sells, buys, possesses, stores, transmits or displays “real representations of sexual activity involving a person under 18,” with 10 to 20 years in prison. The penalty rises when the offender is a family member.

Note the word “real.” A fully AI-generated image of a real child is a fabrication, so whether it fits Article 218 is a legal question we could not find clearly settled by Colombian courts. That uncertainty is exactly what Red PaPaz and UNICEF want lawmakers to remove. Argentina offers a comparison: one appeals court there read a similar article to cover AI material in 2025, though only a new law would settle it for good.

Colombia did pass one AI-specific rule. Law 2502 of 2025 adds an aggravating factor to the crime of personal-identity fraud (Article 296) when the impersonation uses AI, raising the fine by up to a third. The law’s text defines a deepfake and orders a public policy on AI misuse, with the penalty change taking effect one year after enactment. It is about impersonation and fines. It does not address sexual images of minors, as Blu Radio’s coverage also notes.

Where to report, by situation

Situation	Where to go	What to give them
Sexual image of a minor online, in Colombia	Te Protejo (teprotejocolombia.org) and the platform’s report button	The URL, the platform, the date; never the file
A child in immediate danger, in Colombia	Police emergency line 123	Location and what is happening
Your child needs emotional support, in Colombia	ICBF Línea 141 or Línea 106	Nothing in advance; just call
Elsewhere in Latin America	Te Protejo Latino (teprotejo.org) country selector, or your INHOPE national hotline	The URL
Image of anyone under 18, any country	NCMEC Take It Down	Works from the device that already has the image; it never uploads it
In the United States	NCMEC CyberTipline and the platform	The URL and usernames

What to do at home

Teach the “link, not file” rule early

The safest reporting habit is also the simplest: if you see something like this, close it, copy the link, tell an adult. Kids who learn that rule do not end up forwarding an image “to show someone,” which spreads the harm and can be a crime.

Talk about nudify apps before a classmate does

Most kids hear about these apps from peers. Say it first: making a fake sexual image of a real person is abuse, even “as a joke,” and it can follow the person who made it. Our article on nudify apps and kids covers the conversation in more detail.

Lock down the photos that feed these tools

Nudify apps need a clear photo of a face and body. Set your child’s social accounts to private, limit who can download their pictures, and think twice before posting school or swimsuit photos publicly. It will not stop every case, but it removes easy material.

If your child is targeted, believe them first

Shame keeps kids quiet. Say clearly that it is not their fault, then preserve the evidence without the image: usernames, links, group names, dates. Report to Te Protejo and the platform, and tell the school. Our first-steps guide for families walks through the first 48 hours.

What not to do: look, save or forward

Do not ask your child to show you the image, and do not download or screenshot it, even to report. INHOPE and Te Protejo need only the link. Every copy is one more to remove and may be a crime to hold.

What to Watch For Over the Next 3 Months

• Week 4: Whether Colombia’s Congress takes up proposals to name AI-generated material in Article 218. Red PaPaz’s public statements are the fastest signal.
• Month 2 red flags: Your child avoiding school or a group chat, deleting accounts, or flinching at notifications. These can follow image-based abuse or sextortion.
• Month 3 self-check: Does your child know the “link, not file” rule, and do they know they can tell you without losing their phone?

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Te Protejo run by the government?

No. Te Protejo is operated by the Corporación Red PaPaz, a civil-society organization, as part of the Viguías Safer Internet Centre. It is a member of the INHOPE network and forwards reports to the ICBF, the National Police, the Fiscalía, the Education Ministry and platforms. It does not replace filing a criminal complaint.

Can I report anonymously?

Yes. Te Protejo’s form does not require your name, and INHOPE hotlines generally accept anonymous reports. If you want a reply, you can leave an email address. What the hotline does need is the link, the platform and a short description of what you saw.

Should I attach the image to my report?

No. Give the URL only. INHOPE tells reporters never to send files, and downloading, saving or sharing sexual images of a minor can be illegal even with good intentions. If the image arrived in a private chat with no link, describe it and report it to the platform and the police.

Is a fake AI image of a child a crime in Colombia?

Colombian law punishes “real representations” of sexual activity involving minors with 10 to 20 years. Whether a fully AI-generated image counts has not been clearly settled. Report it anyway: the hotline and authorities decide how to classify it, and the platform can remove it regardless.

Where can my child get emotional help in Colombia?

Call the ICBF’s Línea 141, which serves children and adolescents 24 hours a day, or Línea 106 for mental health support. In an emergency, call 123. In the US, call or text 988 or text HOME to 741741. Elsewhere, findahelpline.com lists local lines.

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About the author

Ricky Flores is the founder of HiWave Makers and an electrical engineer with 15+ years of experience building consumer technology at Apple, Samsung, and Texas Instruments. He writes about how kids learn to build, think, and create in a tech-saturated world. Read more at hiwavemakers.com.

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Sources

1. El Colombiano. (2026, February 17). “Indignante: uso de IA en Colombia disparó creación de material sexual ilegal con niños.” https://www.elcolombiano.com/tecnologia/uso-de-ia-en-colombia-creacion-contenido-ilegal-ninos-EC33640721
2. Te Protejo Colombia. (2026). “¿Qué es Te Protejo?” and reporting form. Red PaPaz. https://teprotejocolombia.org/que-es-te-protejo/
3. INHOPE. (2026). “How to report.” International Association of Internet Hotlines. https://inhope.org/what-we-do/how-to-report
4. UNICEF. (2026, February). “Artificial intelligence and child sexual abuse and exploitation” (brief). https://www.unicef.org/media/178571/file/UNICEF%20AI%20CSEA%20Brief_2.pdf
5. Congreso de Colombia. (2000, amended 2009). “Código Penal (Ley 599 de 2000),” Art. 218. Secretaría del Senado. http://www.secretariasenado.gov.co/senado/basedoc/ley_0599_2000_pr008.html
6. Congreso de Colombia. (2025). “Ley 2502 de 2025.” https://avas-urosario-1.urosario.edu.co/sites/default/files/2025-09/ley-no-2502-del-28-de-julio-de-2025.pdf
7. Blu Radio. (2025, May 27). “Colombia considerará como un delito usar la IA para suplantar a una persona.” https://www.bluradio.com/politica/colombia-considerara-como-un-delito-usar-la-ia-para-suplantar-a-una-persona-rg10
8. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. (2026). “Take It Down.” https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/