Instagram has been running paid adverts promoting child sexual abuse material in India, a BBC Eye investigation has found, as the National Crime Agency warns parents not to publicly share images of their children due to the growing threat of AI-generated abuse imagery.
The ads, seen by the BBC World Service, use terms including “rape video” and “child video” and link users to channels on the messaging app Telegram, where the material can be bought for as little as 99 rupees (about 80p). A retired justice of India’s Supreme Court, Madan Lokur, said he was concerned that Instagram was “making money by participating in a criminal activity”.
“BBC finds Instagram running ads for child sexual abuse material in India, as UK parents told not to share children's images due to AI risks.”
In total, about 30 unique adverts appeared promoting child sexual abuse, although some were shared by multiple accounts. One advert showed a boy and girl, both of whom appeared to be about 12 years old, engaging in a sexual act. Another showed a man with his arm around a girl. The BBC set up an alias account in India to investigate sexualised content on the platform after noticing that Instagram was pushing sexually suggestive content even when a user hadn’t searched for such material. In less than a week, the account started showing advertisements featuring women offering video calls and showing naked couples having sex. Days later, it began showing adverts of children with adults in sexually suggestive situations, with links to Telegram channels.
Hours after the investigation was published, the Indian government said it had summoned representatives of Instagram’s parent company, Meta, over the adverts. Meta said it had already disabled several adverts and suspended the accounts posting them, and later said it had removed additional ads, disabled more accounts and blocked URLs for other content that violated its policies in response to the BBC’s findings. Telegram said it had removed more than 274,000 groups and channels related to child sexual abuse material in 2026.
Separately, in the UK, the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) have warned parents against publicly posting images of their children online due to the growth of AI-generated abuse imagery. “While we and policing colleagues tackle offenders, prevention remains vital,” said Tim Wright, a senior manager at the NCA. More than 8,000 AI-generated images and videos of realistic child sexual abuse were identified by the IWF in 2025 – a 14% increase on the year before. The IWF said its analysts had identified 13 AI-generated videos of child sexual abuse in 2024, but in 2025 this number had increased to 3,440.
The organisations have released fresh guidance for parents, urging them to review privacy settings, check social media accounts for identifying details, and revisit image consent with friends, family, schools and clubs. “AI is becoming a part of everyday life,” the guidance states. “Whilst it has many benefits, it can also be misused – including by those who use it to make, manipulate and share nude, semi-nude or sexual images and videos of children.” The guidance adds that it may be helpful for parents to include children in discussions about how and where their image is taken or shared. The government has sought to tackle AI abuse threats by banning so-called “nudification” apps and tweaking laws to help AI firms prevent their systems from producing child sexual abuse material.