"Instagram is full of openly available AI-generated child abuse content", April 2, 2025

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, a banned behavior that Meta's safety systems were unable to detect.

In January 2025, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would relax some of its content moderation policies in the United States, citing "many mistakes and too much censorship"...

…Nucleo started an investigation in partnership with the Pulitzer Center's AI Accountability Network to assess the dissemination of illegal material involving children and adolescents, and was able to identify 14 Instagram profiles that were posting disturbing AI-generated images of minors.

All of those accounts followed the same visual pattern: blonde characters with voluptuous bodies and ample breasts, blue eyes, and childlike faces... Each account analyzed by the investigation had the same visual theme, including eye color, skin tone, hair, and similar childlike features.

…These figures were depicted in various sexualized contexts: in bikinis, lingerie, or low-cut dresses. But these were not "adult models," but rather representations of teenagers and even children...

…Despite Nucleo's investigation revealing the issue, Meta did not detect these accounts until contacted by the news outlet.

The United Kingdom is one of the few countries in the world with a specific law for this type of crime with generative AI and child sexual exploitation. Passed in February 2025, the law bans both the creation of content and the development of guides or guidelines involving child abuse associated with generative AI…