Instagram has been running paid adverts promoting child sexual abuse material in India, a BBC Eye investigation has found, using terms including “rape video” and “child video” and linking users to channels on the messaging app Telegram where the material could be bought for as little as 99 rupees.
Hours after the BBC investigation was published, the Indian government said it had summoned representatives of Instagram’s parent company, Meta, over the adverts. 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”.
“Instagram ran ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India, as UK's NCA warns parents over AI image risks.”
The BBC set up an alias account in India and within a week Instagram was 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. In total, about 30 unique adverts appeared promoting child sexual abuse, and about 20 ads featuring adult pornography.
When the BBC reported one such ad to Instagram, the platform responded 24 hours later saying the post did not violate its “community guidelines”. Later, Meta said it had already disabled several adverts and suspended the accounts posting them, and removed additional ads and blocked URLs 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, the National Crime Agency and the Internet Watch Foundation have warned parents not to publicly post images of their children online due to the growth of AI-generated abuse imagery. 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 3,440 in 2025.
“While we and policing colleagues tackle offenders, prevention remains vital,” said Tim Wright, a senior manager at the NCA. In partnership with the IWF, the organisation has released guidance for parents, advising them to review privacy settings, check social media accounts for identifying details, and revisit image consent with friends, family, schools and clubs.
The guidance says: “AI is becoming a part of everyday life. 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 government has sought to tackle AI abuse threats to children by banning so-called “nudification” apps and tweaking laws to help AI firms ensure their systems cannot be used to produce child sexual abuse material.
Both stories underline the escalating crisis of online child exploitation, from algorithmic advertising that promotes abuse to the synthetic generation of illegal imagery. The BBC has reported all the ads and Telegram channels to the Indian authorities.