Parents should not publicly post images of their children online due to the growth of AI-generated abuse imagery, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned – a plea that comes as a BBC investigation reveals Instagram has been running paid adverts promoting child sexual abuse material in India.
The NCA, alongside the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), said 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. The IWF said it had identified 13 AI-generated videos of child sexual abuse in 2024, but in 2025 this number had increased to 3,440.
“NCA warns parents not to share children's images publicly; BBC finds Instagram running ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India.”
“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 fresh guidance for parents outlining steps they can take to help keep their children safe online. The guidance advises parents to review their privacy settings, make a “close friends” group for sharing images, check existing social media content 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 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 CSAM.
The warnings come as a BBC Eye investigation found Instagram has been running paid adverts promoting child sexual abuse material in India. 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 they can buy the material for as little as 99 rupees (about 80p). The BBC set up an alias account in India and, within days, 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. One ad showed a boy and girl, both of whom appeared to be about 12 years old, engaging in a sexual act.
Hours after the investigation was published, the Indian government said it had summoned representatives of Instagram’s parent company, Meta, over the adverts. When the BBC first reported one of the ads 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.
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”.