Meta’s artificial intelligence tools raised fresh questions about privacy and child safety after the system gathered invasive details about a mother’s daughters from her Facebook and Instagram posts. The same company is also facing scrutiny over hundreds of ads containing child sexual abuse material that appeared across its platforms.
Kalie Robins, a mother in Utah, discovered that Meta AI could connect posts from her accounts, identify her children, and work out where she lived. The tool even suggested prompts about investigating her daughters. One prompt asked, “What are Kalie’s daughter’s ages?” Another said, “It was working on pinpointing Kalie Robins’ location.”
Robins described the experience as a growing sense of fear. “It just kept going and going, and that pit in my stomach just kept getting bigger and deeper,” she said. When she followed one of the system’s suggestions, the result included information about both of her children.
“I clicked on it, and it gave a whole portfolio of not just my daughter that was in the car, but also my other daughter,” Robins said.
Meta AI Pulled Family Details From Public Posts
The incident shows how information shared across separate social media posts can become more revealing when an AI system connects it. Meta AI was able to cross-reference Robins’ Facebook and Instagram accounts, identify details about her children, and provide information about her location.
The concern is not limited to one family’s experience. Meta’s tools are designed to process large amounts of information and respond to questions, but this case raised questions about how those systems handle details involving children. Prompts that focus on children’s ages, family members, and locations can turn ordinary posts into a detailed personal profile.
Meta’s wider child-safety problems involve its advertising system as well. In early August, Meta deleted around 50 ads containing child sexual abuse material after the ads were brought to the company’s attention. Since the start of August, more than 250 additional ads containing CSAM have run across Meta’s platforms.
Meta has published more than 350 abusive video ads since the end of last year. The ads reached more than 29,000 accounts in the European Union and around 7,000 accounts in the United Kingdom. More than 250 appeared in the United States, while 120 appeared in Australia and 80 appeared in India.
AI Tools Failed to Stop Harmful Advertising
Approximately 300 of the 350 ads directed users to AI image or video generator apps. Most of those apps were linked to developers based in China, while some ads were connected to Chinese companies acting as ad resellers in countries where Meta’s platforms are banned.
Many of the ads generated little revenue for Meta. The company received under $5,000 in ad payments for many of the ads found, but its automated systems still allowed the material to reach users. Meta’s AI tools can take a week to review some live ads reported for CSAM, leaving harmful content available during that period.
Meta says its systems are meant to detect and block harmful ads, yet the results show those tools did not prevent the material from being published. The company has previously removed hundreds of thousands of ads for violating its policies on nudification, but dozens of AI nudification or “undress” apps and websites have flourished online over the last six years, helping people create abusive images of women and girls.
Child protection organizations warn that AI technology is being used more often to create CSAM. The ads also included material involving a member of a European royal family, showing how these systems can be used to target identifiable people and distribute abusive content at scale.
Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton said, “We don’t tolerate nudify apps or any kind of child exploitation, whether real or AI-generated.” Meta also reports child exploitation content to NCMEC, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Lawmakers and Regulators Demand Answers
The advertising cases have drawn attention from lawmakers and regulators in several countries. Virginia senator Mark Warner sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the ads, but the letter has not received a reply. Meta said it will respond to the letter.
Warner said, “Meta needs to follow their own advertising standards, heed the call, and put an end to these illegal and inappropriate ads.” He also said, “It is disappointing that Meta continues to run ads featuring child sexual abuse material and nonconsensual intimate images after it was brought to their attention.”
Michigan’s attorney general is investigating reports involving AI-generated child sexual abuse material on Meta. James Uthmeier, Florida’s attorney general, is also investigating. A spokesperson for Michigan’s attorney general said, “This is extremely troubling, and we are actively looking into the matter.”
Australia’s eSafety internet regulator is assessing Meta’s compliance with its rules and has requested information from the company. Meta is also appealing a New Mexico court decision that would require it to improve its CSAM reporting processes and add human reviews.
The pressure comes as Meta is paying up to $16.7 billion to settle lawsuits over claims that its social networks harmed children. Taken together, the cases point to two connected problems: AI systems can uncover sensitive family information, while automated advertising tools can fail to stop abusive material from spreading.
For families, the issue is not only what they choose to post. It is also what an AI system can assemble from separate pieces of information, and how quickly harmful content can move when platforms rely on automated checks without enough human review.
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