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Fri, 03 Jul 2026

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 Instagram running ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India, BBC finds

The ads use terms including “rape” and “child video” and link to content on the messaging app Telegram.

* The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's Cyber Tipline received 1.9 million reports from India in 2025, with Instagram and Facebook generating the most tiplines.
* A Mumbai-based NGO, the Rati Foundation, reported that the majority of CSAM reports it receives come from Meta platforms.
* Experts say that CSAM in India is often created by criminal groups, such as human traffickers, although family and community members may also be involved.
* International cooperation and intelligence sharing are crucial to effectively tackling CSAM, according to Bhuwan Ribhu, founder of Just Rights for Children.
* Shikha Goel, director of the Cyber Security Bureau in Telangana, stated that they receive more alerts from Meta's platforms than any others. The article also mentions a case where Meta was ordered to pay $375 million (approximately £279 million) to New Mexico as part of a trial in which it was accused of misleading users over the safety of its platforms for children.