Anonymous social media profiles sharing memes about school life are spreading across the islands, prompting concerns over humiliation, online harassment and the impact on school communities.
Spain’s National Police have issued a warning about social media accounts known as ‘curis’, which publish content intended to ridicule or humiliate students and teachers. The practice, found on several social media platforms, “can affect the well-being of the people targeted and relationships within schools”, the police’s Directorate-General has said.
These profiles often use a school’s name, initials or logo and share memes, drawings and videos about everyday classroom situations. The trend has spread among educational centres across the Balearic Islands.
At IES Antoni Maura in Mallorca, staff have already identified several TikTok posts shared through accounts labelled ‘curis’. These profiles use the school’s logo and circulate images of students and teachers in the form of viral memes.
While such accounts may present themselves as humorous, they can become a form of cyberbullying, particularly when images of other people are shared without their consent.
Even when a post uses a caricature, nickname or reference to a particular class rather than a photograph or full name, classmates may still be able to identify the person being targeted.
Depending on the seriousness and circumstances of each case, such behaviour could constitute offences including violations of moral integrity or serious insult, and may also lead to civil liability.
Using drawings or describing a post as a joke does not automatically prevent its content or the harm it causes from being assessed. Nor does posting anonymously remove the possibility of accountability.
What to do if you are targeted by a ‘curi’ account
Save screenshots and evidence
Anyone who has been targeted by this type of humiliation should save screenshots of relevant posts and comments, the National Police advises. Where possible, the evidence should clearly show the content, date and profile from which it was shared.
Victims should also keep the account’s username and links to the profile and individual posts. The police advise against forwarding the material more widely than necessary to report what happened or provide evidence.
Report the posts and block the accounts
Once the evidence has been preserved, the police recommend reporting the content through the platform’s own reporting tools and blocking anyone who is harassing the person concerned.
Children and teenagers should tell a trusted adult and inform their school about what has happened. Those affected, along with their families, can also contact the National Police to report the incident.
The police warning highlights the importance of taking online humiliation seriously, even when posts are presented as memes or jokes and shared through anonymous accounts.