The Central government has issued a notice to Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, ordering it to take down Instagram advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material.The notice comes after a recent BBC investigation found the app running numerous paid ads offering access to child abuse content by redirecting users to the messaging app Telegram. Children as young as seven years were featured in the video ads viewed by the BBC.Here is what the investigation revealed and where it stands in the context of earlier complaints against the app over the years, with allegations of promoting such material and evading accountability.What the BBC foundThe BBC set up an alias account for the investigation and found that Instagram began showing it sexual material after it followed some accounts showing sexually suggestive content.Within days, the ads they encountered devolved into the territory of abusive material focused on children. “The ads, seen by the BBC World Service, use terms including ‘rape video’ and ‘child video’ and link users to channels on the messaging app Telegram, where they can buy the material for as little as 99 rupees,” the report said.How Instagram approves adsIn its report, the BBC states that ads on Instagram are “only published after first being approved by its moderation technology.”According to Facebook’s Ads in review page, its review system “relies primarily on automated tools to check ads and business assets against our policies.” Child sexual abuse and fraud or deceptive practices are some of the banned categories.Story continues below this ad“Our ad review process starts automatically before ads begin running, and is typically completed within 24 hours… This review process may include the specific components of an ad, such as images, video, text and targeting information,” the website says. Still, this system is not foolproof.Explained | How India is trying to regulate children’s social media use — and why gaps remainIn March, Meta also announced it was reducing its reliance on third-party human moderators and increasing the use of AI.Once the ads are published, users can report them for violating app policies, but this mechanism can be faulty. When the BBC account reported one of the ads to Instagram, it responded 24 hours later, saying the post did not violate its “community guidelines”. When the BBC reached out to Instagram for an official response, it said it removed many of the ads and accounts in question.The disturbing nature of the ads, however, raises deep concerns about the platform’s practices. One of them showed a man with his arm around a girl, with text saying he was 52 and the girl was 12, and inviting users to “Click to watch more.”Story continues below this adAnd, when the BBC reported an ad showing a girl in tears, with indications that she had been subjected to abuse, Instagram replied saying “our review team found that the advertiser’s ad does not go against our community standards”. The ad was not removed, ultimately.Relationship between Instagram and adsWhile the BBC report did not claim that Instagram had a specific interest in showing such illegal content to its users, it linked the lack of action in such cases to a simple monetary incentive.The ad-based system is the basis of Instagram’s business. “In January, it (Instagram) reported that almost 98% of its $200bn (£152bn) revenue for the financial year ending 2025 came from advertising. Analysts estimate that ads account for more than 90% of Instagram’s revenue,” the report said. Thus, curbing or scrutinising that system has a financial cost for the company.In the past, other news outlets’ investigations have also flagged problems with social media giants’ content moderation. An April 2025 report published by the Pulitzer Centre found that “At least a dozen accounts on Instagram, totaling hundreds of thousands of followers, were openly sharing AI-generated images of children and adolescents in sexualized poses.” Here, too, some accounts redirected users to apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.Story continues below this adThe Wall Street Journal, along with researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, found in 2023 that Instagram “helps connect and promote a vast network of accounts openly devoted to the commission and purchase of underage-sex content.”“Pedophiles have long used the internet, but unlike the forums and file-transfer services that cater to people who have interest in illicit content, Instagram doesn’t merely host these activities. Its algorithms promote them. Instagram connects pedophiles and guides them to content sellers via recommendation systems that excel at linking those who share niche interests,” it said.