Meta Ads Featured AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material

Meta Platforms, Inc. took several days to remove advertisements containing AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from Facebook and Instagram. Some of these ads included images of real children, such as a press photo of a young member of a European royal family and images taken from a popular Instagram profile of a preteen girl considered an influencer. An investigation published by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) on September 8, 2026, reported that Meta failed to detect 332 ads containing CSAM this year. The majority of these ads promoted AI applications developed in China, including 'nudify' apps that enable users to digitally alter images of children. TTP matched multiple CSAM ads to photos of real children that were available online. These ads may violate federal child pornography laws, as the Justice Department has stated that AI-generated CSAM is as harmful as traditional CSAM. The investigation revealed that the young royal's image was animated into a video depicting a graphic sex act. Other ads transformed a photo of a 14-year-old Instagram influencer into a video of her performing oral sex, while a third victim, a preteen girl in stock photos, was depicted in a video where she appeared frightened as she was molested by an adult male.