U.S. gymnast McKayla Maroney, through her lawyers, has served a legal demand to porn.com, which hosted the leaked iCloud photos from the forum 4chan, turning the investigation into a child abuse case since some photos were taken when she was younger than 18, The Guardian reports.

Even after denying that leaked photos from the celebrity mass iCloud hack Sunday, which revealed about 400 nude or semi-nude photos of more than100 female celebrities, Maroney's lawyers served the demand to porn.com outlining the charges -- which include child abuse.

Under U.S. and U.K. law, it is illegal to view or download an image of an individual younger than 18, which means the penalties that the hackers are facing could be worse than what it would have been for the hack.

Word has spread fast on the upgraded charges, and moderators on Reddit have advised readers to delete the photos, The Guardian reported.

Apple released a statement Tuesday and said, "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 ... we are continuing to work with law enforcement to help identify the criminals involved".

The hackers exploited a vulnerability in the online storage application, iCloud, which backs up photos taken on iPhones, and appears to be interested in making a career of it, RT reported.

In a post on the forum, in which he was dubbed original guy by other 4chan users, he posted that he has moved because he knew he was being sought by authorities.

"Guys, just to let you know I didn't do this by myself," he wrote, according to RT."There are several other people who were in on it and I needed to count on to make this happened [sic].

"This is the result of several months of long and hard work by all involved. We appreciate your donations and applaud your excitement. "I will soon be moving to another location from which I will continue to post."

The "original guy" then asked for Bitcoin donations in his post, which appeared just after midnight Monday.