Instagram has been running paid adverts promoting child sexual abuse material in India, a BBC Eye investigation has found, prompting the Indian government to summon representatives of Meta – as the UK’s National Crime Agency warned parents not to publicly share images of their children due to the growth 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. Hours after the investigation was published, the Indian government said it had summoned Meta representatives over the adverts.
“BBC finds Instagram running paid ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India; NCA warns parents about AI-generated abuse imagery.”
Ads on Instagram are only published after first being approved by its moderation technology. When the BBC reported one of the ads, Instagram responded 24 hours later saying the post did not violate its “community guidelines”. Later, when the BBC asked Meta for comment, it said it had already disabled several adverts and suspended the accounts posting them. The company said it had removed additional ads, disabled more accounts 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.
The BBC set up an alias account on Instagram after noticing the platform was pushing sexually suggestive content, even when a user hadn’t searched for such material. In less than a week, Instagram started showing advertisements featuring women offering video calls and showing clearly 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, although some were shared by multiple accounts. The alias account was also shown about 20 ads featuring adult pornography. Both child sexual abuse material and adult pornography are criminal offences in India. 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”.
The findings come as the National Crime Agency, along with the Internet Watch Foundation, warned that there is a growing threat of children’s images online being used to create child sexual abuse material (CSAM). 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. “While we and policing colleagues tackle offenders, prevention remains vital,” said Tim Wright, a senior manager at the NCA. 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. This imagery is considered CSAM in the UK.
The NCA and IWF have released fresh guidance for parents outlining steps to help keep children safe online. It says parents should review privacy settings, make a “close friends” group for sharing images, check social media accounts for identifying details, and revisit image consent with friends, family and clubs. The guidance states: “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 by banning so-called “nudification” apps and tweaking laws to help AI firms ensure their systems cannot be used to produce CSAM.