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Getty ImagesMeta says it will begin reporting child safety cases directly to Indian authorities, following a BBC Eye investigation into paid advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on its platforms.
The investigation, published in July, found that Instagram was running paid adverts promoting such material in India,
The findings prompted the Indian government to order Meta to remove all advertisements and content promoting CSAM from its platforms.
The issue came under renewed scrutiny this month after the Washington-based Tech Transparency Project reported finding hundreds of adverts containing AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery on Meta’s platforms, including 84 in India.
“Protecting children on our platforms is a priority for us, and we’re committed to working with the government to ensure that the perpetrators of these crimes are held responsible,” a Meta spokesperson said.
“To collectively strengthen our efforts to combat this harm, Meta will now report child safety matters directly to the Cybercrime portal managed by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre.”
The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, known as I4C, operates under the country’s home ministry.
Meta has not said when direct reporting will begin, precisely which cases it will cover or how the arrangement will work in practice.
Until now, Meta has said that when it becomes aware of apparent child exploitation, it reports it to the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC, in accordance with its legal obligations.
NCMEC operates a centralised reporting system and passes relevant reports to law enforcement agencies in other countries.
Once Meta also begins reporting child safety matters directly to India’s cybercrime portal, it will allow local authorities to receive information more quickly.
The change follows pressure from Indian authorities and child-rights groups over how such material was circulated and monetised on social media.
After the BBC Eye investigation, the government had ordered Meta to remove all advertisements and content promoting child sexual abuse material from Instagram.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, or NCPCR, also took notice of the findings and sought an explanation and documents from Meta. It later opened a formal inquiry and summoned Meta India’s managing director and country head.
India’s National Human Rights Commission separately issued notices to two government ministries. Its inquiry is examining whether the platform’s systems played a role in selecting, circulating, amplifying or monetising the content.
Just Rights for Children, a network of more than 250 organisations, also cited the BBC’s findings in a petition before India’s Supreme Court. It asked the court to direct social media companies to identify and report those promoting child sexual abuse material to Indian authorities.
Its founder Bhuwan Ribhu had told the BBC that reporting cases only through the US-based system was insufficient.
The pressure intensified after Tech Transparency Project found 332 adverts containing AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery on Facebook and Instagram.
It said 84 of the advertisements ran in India and 78 appeared after the Indian government had ordered Meta to remove such content.
In a statement, Meta had told the BBC that it did not tolerate nudify apps or child exploitation, whether involving real or AI-generated images.
The company said criminals continually changed their tactics to evade detection and that it was strengthening its systems.
It also said many of the advertisements identified had already been removed, most had received fewer than 200 views and the total advertising spend was below $5,000 (£3,700).
