Jenna Ortega has spoken out about her horror after finding out people had used photos of her as a child to create disgusting explicit AI images.
The actress, 21, made her on-screen debut in 2012 at just nine years old, but was propelled to new heights of fame in recent years with appearances in the Scream franchise, as well as the leading role in the series Wednesday.
Jenna played Wednesday Addams in the Netflix comedy-horror series, which quickly became one of Netflix's most-watched shows, receiving over 1 billion viewing hours within a month and earning her nominations for many awards, including a Golden Globe, SAG Award and Primetime Emmy.
However, the success of the show also came with some downsides to Jenna's life, as she found the newfound attention led to some very disturbing online interactions.
Jenna revealed on the New York Times’ podcast, The Interview, that she had to delete her Twitter account after receiving some disgusting DMs, including explicit edited images of her as a minor.
She admitted: "I hate AI. I mean, here’s the thing: AI could be used for incredible things. I think I saw something the other day where they were saying that artificial intelligence was able to detect breast cancer four years before it progressed. That’s beautiful. Let’s keep it to that.
"Did I like being 14 and making a Twitter account because I was supposed to and seeing dirty edited content of me as a child? No. It’s terrifying. It’s corrupt. It’s wrong."
She revealed: "The first [direct message] I ever opened myself when I was 12 was an unsolicited photo of a man’s genitals. And that was just the beginning of what was to come."
Jenna revealed that she was told to create a Twitter account as it would help "build your image", but found it became a dark place once her fame skyrocketed.
"I ended up deleting it about two, three years ago because the influx after the show [Wednesday] had come out — these absurd images and photos, and I already was in a confused state that I just deleted it," she explained.
Opening up about the "disgusting" AI images she was sent of herself, Jenna added: "It made me feel bad. It made me feel uncomfortable. Anyway, that’s why I deleted it, because I couldn’t say anything without seeing something like that.
"So one day I just woke up, and I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t need this anymore,’ so I dropped it."
She revealed that deleting Twitter was a way of her "learning" to protect herself, as she remains active on Instagram, where she has over 38 million followers.
And while finding fame so young has come with some downsides, Jenna admits that she wouldn't change anything about starting her Hollywood career at the age of nine.
She explained: "There’s times that I regret it, there’s times that my parents regret it.
"Looking back, I wouldn’t change anything. I don’t believe in that because if anything, I’m incredibly grateful for the lessons that it did teach me, and it did teach me so much."