Jim Gamble, a former police officer and chief executive of the INEQE Safeguarding Group, said the creation and distribution of AI-generated images is a problem that knew no “geographical bounds”.
He described the ordeal as traumatising for the victims and their families and for the young people who created the images.
“The people who have perpetrated in this instance are teenagers, they are children themselves,” he added.
“I am not trying to play that down, or to mitigate it, but it is really important that we do consider that, that they are young people and young people can make errors of judgement and the law is a very blunt tool.”
He urged anyone who may have created an image, or been the victim of one, to come forward to their school and the police.
“Everybody needs to pause and reflect that we are dealing with children and do the right thing so everybody walks away from this with lessons learned and lives intact.”