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Age of Consent for Image Rights and AI: Spain Picks 16
Spain's bill sets the age of consent for image rights at 16 and bars unauthorized AI likenesses: what it would change and the photo lesson for every family.
Who gets to decide what happens to a 12-year-old’s face online? In Spain, the answer is about to get more specific. The government’s bill to replace the country’s 1982 law on honor, privacy and image would set 16 as the age at which a young person can consent to the use of their own image, and would, for the first time, make it unlawful to use someone’s voice or image generated with AI for advertising or commercial purposes without their permission. Spain’s cabinet approved a first draft on January 13, 2026, and a final bill on July 7, which went to Congress. The age of consent for image rights and AI likenesses is a question every family now faces, law or no law, because a child’s photo can be scraped, cloned and reused in seconds. Here is what Spain’s bill would do, what it would not, and the practical lesson for parents anywhere.
Key Takeaways
- Spain’s bill would set 16 as the age at which minors can consent to use of their own image, and require prosecutors to intervene in cases involving people under 18.
- Even with a minor’s consent, any use that damages the minor’s honor would count as an unlawful intrusion.
- For the first time, using a person’s voice or image made with AI or similar technology for advertising or commercial purposes without authorization would be unlawful.
- Sharing photos on social media would not give others permission to reuse them on other networks or channels.
- Human Rights Watch found in 2024 that a widely used AI training data set contained links to identifiable photos of Brazilian children, some originally posted on family blogs.
What Spain’s Bill Would Change
The bill is a proposed Organic Law on the civil protection of the rights to honor, personal and family privacy, and one’s own image. It would replace a 1982 law written long before social media. According to the Ministry of Justice’s January announcement, the draft “adapts it to the digital environment (artificial intelligence, social networks, etc.)” and expands protection of these fundamental rights.
The Majorca Daily Bulletin, reporting the January 13 cabinet decision, summarized it as a bill that “strengthens protections for children, sets 16 as the minimum age for giving consent to use one’s own image and limits the reuse of online images and AI-generated voices or likenesses without permission.” Justice Minister Félix Bolaños said: “The fact that people share personal or family images on social media does not give absolute freedom to use those images in other contexts.”
On July 7, 2026, the cabinet approved the final bill and sent it to Congress, according to the Ministry of Justice and Infocop, after incorporating comments from the judiciary’s governing council, prosecutors, consumer groups and Spain’s data protection agency. I found no report of final passage as of November 1, 2026. It is a bill, not yet law.
The Provisions That Affect Children: Age of Consent for Image Rights
Sixteen as the consent age. The bill places “at 16 years the age from which [minors] can give consent regarding the use of their own image,” per the Ministry. The ministry’s announcements do not spell out how consent works below 16, only that a child under 16 could not give it alone.
Consent is not a blank check. Even with consent, if a use “undermines the honor of the minor,” it is considered an unlawful intrusion. A 15-year-old’s parent could not, in effect, consent away the child’s dignity.
Prosecutors step in. The bill requires the involvement of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in such proceedings “when the injured party is under 18.”
Context limits consent. The July version adds that limits of consent “will be assessed according to the purpose for which it was given, the context in which it occurred, the expected scope of dissemination and the reasonable expectations of the person affected.” A photo shared in a family group chat is not consent to a public post.
No reuse across platforms. Sharing personal images on social networks “does not mean that third parties can use them on other networks or dissemination channels.”
The AI Provisions
Commercial deepfakes need permission. The bill “for the first time” treats as unlawful “the use of a person’s voice or image without their authorization for advertising or commercial purposes using artificial intelligence or similar technologies (deepfakes),” and says measures will be taken so that harmful content “does not persist in digital environments.”
A narrow exception for public figures. For people with a public profile, AI use is protected as free expression in “a creative, satirical or fictional context,” provided it is indicated that the technology is being used.
Protection after death. People could prohibit, by will or through a designated person, commercial use of their image or voice after they die.
Damages that are not symbolic. Courts would weigh factors like repetition, social repercussions and the profit made, and compensation “in no case may be symbolic.”
What the bill does not do matters too. It is a civil law about rights and damages, not a criminal ban on sexual deepfakes, which the Majorca Daily Bulletin notes the EU requires member states to criminalize by 2027. And it does not stop AI companies from training on publicly posted photos; it focuses on use of a person’s likeness without consent.
Why a Child’s Photo Is Now AI Raw Material
Spain’s focus on reuse reflects a technical reality. Modern image generators learn from enormous collections of pictures scraped from the web. Once a model has seen enough images of a face, or is given just a few photos at generation time, it can produce new images of that person.
Human Rights Watch documented this in 2024. Its analysis found that LAION-5B, a data set of 5.85 billion images and captions used to train popular AI tools, contained links to 170 identifiable photos of Brazilian children from at least 10 states, after reviewing “less than 0.0001 percent” of the data set. Some captions included children’s names and the hospital where a baby was born. HRW said some photos “were posted by children, their parents, or their family on personal blogs and photo- and video-sharing sites,” some uploaded “years or even a decade before LAION-5B was created,” and many “do not appear to be otherwise possible to find through an online search.” HRW also reported that at least 85 Brazilian girls said classmates had made sexually explicit deepfakes of them from social media photos.
The point for parents is not that every photo you post will be misused. It is that you cannot predict, years later, what a public photo will be used for.
What Spain’s Rule Means in Practice
| Situation | Under Spain’s bill (if passed) | A practical rule for any family |
|---|---|---|
| A 12-year-old’s school photo posted publicly | The child cannot consent alone; use that harms the child’s honor is unlawful even with consent | Ask your child, and keep it private or in a closed group |
| A 16-year-old wants a photo removed | The 16-year-old consents for themselves | Honor removal requests from teens, even when the law doesn’t require it |
| Someone reposts a family photo on another site | Sharing on one network is not permission to reuse elsewhere | Assume public posts can travel; share narrowly |
| A company uses a child’s likeness in an AI-generated ad | Unlawful without authorization | Report it to the platform and, where possible, a lawyer |
| A satirical AI image of a public figure | Allowed if labeled as AI | Teach kids to look for AI labels |
| Sexualized fake image of a minor | Outside this civil bill; covered by criminal law | Report to police and specialized lines; never forward |
The Lesson for Families Everywhere
Ask before you post, starting young
Spain’s bill sets 16 for legal consent, but children have opinions about their photos long before. Asking “Can I post this?” teaches them their image belongs to them. Our review of sharenting research covers what kids say about it.
Share small, not public
Private accounts, closed family groups and direct messages reduce the chance a photo ends up in a scraped data set or a stranger’s AI tool.
Strip the details
HRW found captions that named children and places. Avoid names, school logos, locations and birth details in public posts.
Think twice before uploading faces to AI apps
Many “make me a cartoon” or “age my face” apps require uploading photos. Read what they do with them first. See before you upload your kid’s photo to an AI app.
What not to do
Don’t panic and delete every family photo. The goal is control, not erasure. Decide what is public and what stays in the family.
What to Watch For Over the Next 3 Months
- Week 4: Review your own public posts of your children. Which would your child be comfortable with at 16?
- Month 2 red flags: A child’s photo appearing on a site you didn’t post to, an AI-altered image of your child, or an app asking for many face photos. Report and remove where you can.
- Month 3 self-check: Watch for progress of Spain’s bill in Congress. Have you agreed on a family rule for posting kids’ photos?
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Spain’s image consent law in force?
Not yet. Spain’s cabinet approved a first draft on January 13, 2026, and the final bill on July 7, 2026, which then went to Congress. As of November 1, 2026, I found no report of final passage. If passed, it would replace a 1982 law on honor, privacy and image.
What does “16 is the age to consent to your own image” mean?
Under the bill, people aged 16 and older could give legal consent for others to use their image themselves. Below 16, a child could not consent alone; the announcements do not detail the rest. Even with consent, a use that damages a minor’s honor would be unlawful, and prosecutors must be involved in cases involving under-18s.
Does Spain’s bill ban deepfakes?
It bans commercial and advertising use of a person’s AI-generated voice or image without authorization, with an exception for labeled satire or fiction about public figures. It is a civil law about rights and damages. Sexual deepfakes are a criminal matter under separate laws.
Is there a similar rule in the US?
No general US law sets an age at which children control their own image. COPPA limits data collection from children under 13, and some states have laws on child influencers or deepfakes, but nothing like Spain’s consent-age rule. Parents’ own posting choices remain the main protection.
Can AI companies train on my child’s public photos?
Often they can collect publicly available images, and Spain’s bill focuses on use of a likeness rather than training. Human Rights Watch found identifiable photos of children in a major training data set in 2024. Keeping photos private is the most reliable protection.
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.
Sources
- Majorca Daily Bulletin. (2026, January 13). “Spain moves to curb AI deepfakes, tighten consent rules on images and teen social media use.” Majorca Daily Bulletin. https://amp.majorcadailybulletin.com/news/local/2026/01/13/139531/spain-moves-curb-deepfakes-tighten-consent-rules-images-and-teen-social-media-use.html
- Ministerio de la Presidencia, Justicia y Relaciones con las Cortes. (2026, January). “El Gobierno aprueba una nueva Ley del derecho al honor más garantista y adaptada al entorno digital.” mjusticia.gob.es. https://www.mjusticia.gob.es/es/institucional/gabinete-comunicacion/noticias-ministerio/derecho-honor
- Ministerio de la Presidencia, Justicia y Relaciones con las Cortes. (2026, July). “El Consejo de Ministros aprueba la nueva Ley del derecho al honor y la envĂa al Congreso para su tramitaciĂłn.” mjusticia.gob.es. https://www.mjusticia.gob.es/es/institucional/gabinete-comunicacion/noticias-ministerio/nueva-ley-derecho-honor
- Infocop. (2026, July 9). “El Consejo de Ministros aprueba un Proyecto de Ley para reforzar la protección frente a los deepfakes y el uso no consentido de la imagen.” Infocop. https://www.infocop.es/el-gobierno-aprueba-el-proyecto-de-ley-que-reforzara-la-proteccion-frente-a-los-deepfakes-y-el-uso-no-consentido-de-la-imagen-y-la-voz/
- Human Rights Watch. (2024, June 10). “Brazil: Children’s Personal Photos Misused to Power AI Tools.” Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/06/10/brazil-childrens-personal-photos-misused-power-ai-tools
