Meta has come under renewed scrutiny after a BBC investigation found that paid advertisements on Instagram were allegedly promoting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in India.
The advertisements reportedly directed users to Telegram channels where such material was offered for sale. Following the investigation, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) directed Meta to remove the content and explain how the advertisements had passed its review system.
Meta’s response, received on July 11, is being examined, MeitY Secretary S Krishnan said on July 13.
“We had issued a notice to Meta, and the reply was received on Saturday, which was the last day due for the reply. It is currently under examination,” Krishnan said.
“Based on an examination of the reply, appropriate action will be taken,” he added.
Complaints rise sharply
Government data show a sharp rise in complaints of sexually explicit and exploitative material online.
According to a reply in the Rajya Sabha, the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) received 10,431 complaints concerning child pornography and CSAM in 2025, up 72.1% from 6,060 in 2024.
Complaints involving rape or gang rape and sexually abusive content more than doubled, rising from 4,261 in 2024 to 8,780 in 2025. However, the figure remained below the 12,129 complaints recorded in 2023 and 30,574 in 2022.
Complaints relating to sexually obscene material increased from 21,919 in 2024 to 37,743 in 2025, while those concerning sexually explicit acts rose from 16,095 to 19,703.
Together, the four categories accounted for 76,657 complaints in 2025, compared with 48,335 in 2024. These figures represent complaints reported on the portal, not cases in which an offence was necessarily established.
Difficulty in establishing victims’ ages
A senior officer with the Delhi Police Cyber Cell said complaints are investigated thoroughly, but provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act could not always be invoked because of difficulties in establishing the age or identity of the victims.
“If there are online media that have promulgated child pornography or child abuse material, the challenge for us becomes how to prove if the said material actually involves children. Moreover, with the advent of AI, ascertaining the same becomes almost impossible,” he said.
Courts have also had to consider how a victim’s age can be established in such cases.
In September 2023, a special POCSO court in Karkardooma discharged two accused under Section 15(2) of the Act because the ages of those depicted in the material had not been conclusively established.
Tulir Charitable Trust subsequently approached the Delhi High Court through a public interest litigation, challenging the order and seeking guidelines for courts dealing with CSAM involving unidentified children.
The High Court later converted the petition into a criminal revision case. In April 2026, it set aside the discharge order and directed the trial court to frame charges against the two accused under Section 15(2).
“The learned Sessions Court failed to give due consideration to the opinions of two experts, who had categorically opined that the pornographic videos depicted children engaged in sexually explicit acts. The said expert opinions clearly satisfy the test of subjective satisfaction, which was not properly appreciated by the learned Sessions Court,” the judgement read.
The High Court held that the inability to identify or physically examine the victims could not, by itself, prevent prosecution.
“… the present case concerns the applicability of Section 15(2) of the POCSO Act, which deals with punishment for storing, collecting, and further transmitting CSEM. In cases of this nature, the victims depicted in such material are most often unidentified and untraceable; their parentage and addresses remain unknown, and they cannot be produced before the Court. In such circumstances, the rigid application of the age-determination procedure under Section 34 of the POCSO Act read with Section 94 of the JJ Act would be wholly impractical and unjust,” the Delhi High Court observed.
The ruling clarified that the absence of documentary proof of a victim’s age or identity does not, by itself, prevent charges from being framed.
Video shared on Facebook Messenger
In another case dating to 2023, the authorities received a CyberTipline report concerning material shared through Facebook Messenger.
According to the case file, a user named Law Faraday had shared a video depicting an adult woman sexually abusing a male child.
“The said video file of 2 minutes 13 seconds depicts an adult lady indulging in explicit sexual act with a male child,” the case file read.
The case is pending. An application for anticipatory bail was rejected.
Meta’s enforcement figures
Meta’s transparency data show that it acted against millions of pieces of content classified as child nudity, physical abuse or sexual exploitation during 2025.
Meta said it removed 13 million pieces of child sexual exploitation content from Facebook and Instagram between October and December 2025. More than 96% was detected and removed before being reported by users.
Higher enforcement figures do not necessarily indicate an increase in the circulation of such material, as they may also reflect improved detection or reporting, say experts.
In a blog post published after the BBC investigation, Meta said it had removed several of the advertisements and accounts before the report appeared. The company denied knowingly allowing advertisements promoting child exploitation and said it was investing in artificial intelligence-based detection, enforcement systems and stronger advertisement reviews.
Meta also said it had removed around 1,60,000 suspicious accounts in India over the preceding six months.
Gaps in advertisement screening
The findings have drawn attention to gaps in Meta’s automated advertisement-review system.
A Reuters investigation published in November 2025, based on internal company documents, reported that Meta had projected that around 10% of its 2024 revenue, or approximately $16 billion, would come from advertisements for scams and banned goods.
According to the report, advertisers assessed by Meta’s systems as being at least 95% likely to be fraudulent were banned. Those falling below that threshold could instead be charged higher advertising rates.
The Reuters investigation did not concern CSAM advertisements, but it raised broader concerns about Meta’s screening of paid content and the revenue generated from advertisements suspected of violating its policies.
Under Section 67B of the Information Technology Act, publishing, transmitting, creating, downloading or storing electronic material depicting children in sexually explicit acts is a criminal offence punishable with imprisonment and a fine.
