Over the past nine months, **Meta** has reportedly run numerous paid advertisements featuring explicit AI-generated Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and images of minors accompanied by sexually suggestive statements. Details shared with WIRED reveal that these ads targeted audiences in the United States, the United Kingdom, and over a dozen European countries, in some cases reaching several thousand accounts. ### Discovery by Tech Transparency Project More than 50 image and video ads containing abusive content were recently discovered in **Meta's** ad library by researchers at the **Tech Transparency Project (TTP)**. These listings indicated that some ads linked directly to so-called 'nudify' or 'undressing apps.' **Meta's** ad library, a transparency tool designed to catalog ads displayed on its platforms, showed these ads running across **Facebook**, **Instagram**, **Messenger**, and/or **Threads**. This marks the second instance in recent weeks where paid ads linked to child sexual abuse material have been found on **Meta's** platforms. **Katie Paul**, director of the **TTP**, an independent watchdog group, emphasized the severity of the findings. "These ads made no effort to mask the images or hide what they were promoting," Paul stated. "It’s important to point out that this isn’t content posted by third parties on Facebook or Instagram, these are ads that were reviewed, approved, and allowed to run by **Meta**, never encountering interference while the company collected the ad dollars." ### Content and Targeting The ads, which **Meta** has since removed for violating its policies on child sexual abuse and exploitation material, as well as adult sexual solicitation and nudity, were published between November of last year and early August. Data from **Meta's** ad transparency library shows these ads often ran for several days, with some specifically targeting men. One particularly disturbing video ad, according to **TTP** researchers, used a thumbnail image of a child on the floor with text overlaying it: "Realizing Deep Fantasies with Generation AI. There is so much more than what is shown, use your imagination." When clicked, this ad reportedly played video clips of adults engaged in sexual acts, subsequently adding the child’s face from the thumbnail into a sexual act. Another ad, repeatedly posted, depicted a young girl in a sexual pose with the text: "I can show you more." ### Reach and Reporting While most of the discovered ads were not actively being shown to users when researchers found them, they remained available and seemingly undetected in **Meta's** ad library for months. Although many ads, according to **Meta's** data, reached only a handful of accounts, at least one ad reached 2,563 accounts across Europe, including in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. **Meta's** ad library database does not provide detailed performance metrics for the US or all countries, suggesting the overall reach could be higher. **Paul** noted that **TTP** first discovered these ads last week while investigating 'nudify' app ads on **Meta's** platforms, following a report about a Chinese advertising partner posting such content. The organization immediately reported its findings to the **National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC)** CyberTipline. A spokesperson for **NCMEC** declined to comment on specific reports. ### Meta's Response Following outreach from WIRED, **Meta** removed the ads from its advertising library. A spokesperson for **Meta** commented, "Sexual exploitation is horrific, and we work aggressively to keep it off our platform. The majority of these ads had minimal reach and many were disabled before WIRED shared them. Many of these ads also predate new AI technology we launched recently to better detect and block violating ads at upload—and we’re constantly improving these systems. From removing over 36 million pieces of child sexual exploitation content last year to taking legal action against nudify app developers, we will continue to relentlessly fight this abuse."