Lawyers for US Olympic gymnast demand pictures removed from pornography website, claiming she was under 18 when photos were taken

Investigations into the targeted hacking of celebrities’ iPhone accounts have turned into a child abuse case after it emerged that the US Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney, one of the alleged victims, was under 18 at the time some nude photos were taken.



Under US and other laws, it is illegal to own or share sexual images of another person under 18. With the FBI already investigating the leak, that means that the gang behind the widespread targeted hacking of female celebrities - including Maroney and others – could be facing far more serious charges than those relating to the original theft of the photos.

Although Maroney has denied that the pictures are of her, lawyers acting for the athlete served a legal demand on porn.com, which had been hosting the pictures released on 4chan over the weekend.

Anyone who has viewed or downloaded alleged images of Maroney could potentially be guilty of child abuse under UK and US law. Moderators on the hugely popular discussion board reddit warned users on one “subreddit” discussion board that users there should delete the photos or “this subreddit will most likely be banned (very quickly)”.

More than 400 pictures of over 100 celebrities were posted to the 4chan website, apparently as part of an effort by one member of a gang that regularly hijacked iCloud accounts (to which iPhone pictures are backed up) to cash in on them. Apple said in a statement on Tuesday that “we have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the internet” and that “we are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved”.

The Guardian has seen evidence suggesting that the members of the gang are widely distributed geographically. One is thought to run a Dutch image hosting site, another to work in a midwestern computer server company in the US, and yet another claims to be independently wealthy through the sale of a computing patent.

• Apple blames ‘very targeted attack’ for hack of nude celebrity photos

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