Ads featuring "undressed" photos of users have been detected on Facebook and Instagram
The Tech Transparency Project project revealed that users' photos were distributed in the nude on Facebook and Instagram using artificial intelligence. In particular, children's photos were also distributed in a sexual context in 332 paid advertisements. These advertisements belonged to apps promoting the creation of videos and photos through AI.
Advertisements featuring "undressed" photos of users detected on Facebook and Instagram
The Tech Transparency Project, a project studying the activities of major technology companies, revealed that Meta failed to comply with rules regarding ad placement.
According to the project's report published on September 8, 2026, researchers have found 332 ads on Facebook and Instagram containing child sexual abuse material since the beginning of the year. In most of them, ordinary photos of adults and children were stripped using artificial intelligence and turned into sexually explicit videos or images. These materials were not regular user posts, but paid advertisements. After researchers notified the company about this, they were removed from the platforms.
Meta says ads are reviewed before being placed, and the company's advertising standards prohibit content that leads to or poses a threat of sexual exploitation of individuals, particularly children. However, as seen from the 332 ads identified in the TTP study, this review system failed to stop them in a timely manner. Researchers identified the ads through Meta's public Ad Library. This tool still allows viewing ads distributed in certain regions.
TTP highlighted another problem: records of violations for 113 ads did not explicitly state that rules regarding children were broken. In some cases, rules regarding adult content were cited, or general comments were limited to. This shows that the automated review system cannot always correctly identify prohibited material.
A large portion of the ads identified by TTP were directed to apps that generate images and videos using artificial intelligence. These were tools that allowed modifying a person's photo via AI, depicting them without clothes, or creating sexually explicit videos. The company noted that a large portion of these ads were for apps developed in China.
The problem here is not artificial intelligence itself, but using the technology for harmful purposes with images of other people, especially children, without their consent. The fact that a child's photo is posted on a public social network does not mean it can be used for any purpose. As parents post photos of their children, they should also consider how they might subsequently be copied or modified.