Hundreds of horrific images of children appeared on Meta platforms

Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of sexual violence against children. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673 in the U.S.

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Hundreds of paid advertisements containing disturbing images of children engaging in sex acts appeared on Meta platforms this year, a lengthy new report from a tech industry watchdog says. 

According to a Sept. 8 report from the Tech Transparency Project, researchers found more than 300 ads containing child sexual abuse material on Facebook and Instagram this year. Most of the children depicted in the ads were digitally altered with artificial intelligence tools to make them appear as though they were engaging in sex acts, the report said, and the ads sometimes contained animations of real children. Researchers identified a child in a European royal family, as well as a 14-year-old influencer, and discovered that most of these ads promoted Chinese apps capable of “nudifying” subjects.  

Out of 332 ads on Meta containing explicit images of children, 298 promoted image- and video-editing AI apps in Google and Apple stores, and implied that users could use them to either view or create their own child sexual abuse material, the report said. One advertised app, Lumin – AI Partner — which has since been removed from Apple’s official App Store — promised to “Bring Your Dream AI Partner To Life Instantly.” One of their ads reportedly depicted “an elementary-school-aged girl who appeared to be still missing her adult teeth” with the text “Realizing Deep Fantasies with Generation AI.” According to researchers, clicking on the ad superimposed the child’s face on an adult engaging in sex acts. Other ads containing child sexual abuse images in the report included lewd images of preteen and elementary school-aged girls while accompanying text promised users the opportunity to turn their “hidden desires into hypnotic videos.”

“There are no restrictions,” a voiceover reportedly said over a video of an underage girl engaging in a sex act. “All the characters are real people and there are many options. This is the AI men actually use.” 

“The App Store was designed to be a safe and trusted place for users, and we have zero tolerance for developers who deliberately attempt to evade our review process,” Apple spokesperson Adam Dema told SFGATE in a written statement Wednesday. “In this case, the developers mentioned in this report initially submitted apps that are compliant with the App Review Guidelines, only to later surface nudify capabilities, which are against our rules.” Dema added that 17 of the 20 apps discussed in the report had already been removed. The company is taking action against the other three apps mentioned. 

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Meta has responded similarly to the swarm of ads. 

“We don’t tolerate nudify apps or any kind of child exploitation, whether real or AI-generated,” Tracy Clayton, a Meta spokesperson, told SFGATE Wednesday, adding that many of the ads flagged to the company had already been removed. Most of them had fewer than 200 impressions, Clayton continued, and the total ad spend amounted to under $5,000.

“These criminals constantly shift tactics to evade detection, which is why we keep strengthening our detection and enforcement,” Clayton said. 

But Tech Transparency Project executives remain skeptical about the company’s enforcement. 

“Meta claims it takes a hard stance against child sexual abuse material, but TTP found hundreds of ads containing CSAM that ran on Facebook and Instagram,” TTP Director Katie Paul told SFGATE in an emailed statement Wednesday. “Meta took a week or more to respond when we reported CSAM ads to the company—and often declined to take the images down, saying they didn’t violate Meta standards. This track record doesn’t inspire much confidence when it comes to Meta responding appropriately to AI-generated nude images on its platforms.”