Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is embroiled in controversy after some UK parents discovered that their daughters’ school photos were being used for targeted advertisements promoting the company’s Threads app. The incident came to light when a 37-year-old man reported that his Instagram feed was constantly displaying “back-to-school” photos of schoolgirls, which Meta had repurposed as promotional material.

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According to The Guardian, the man noticed that the suggested ads only featured photos of schoolgirls, not boys, raising concerns about “sexualization.” These photos were originally shared by parents on Instagram to mark their children’s return to school.

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One woman thought her account was private but later discovered that her posts were automatically cross-posted to Threads and becoming publicly visible. Another parent had posted a photo of her child to a public Instagram account. Unbeknownst to them, Meta’s algorithm used these posts as “suggested threads” in advertisements.

The reach of these photos was far greater than parents expected. One mother, who had only 267 followers, reported that her child’s post was viewed nearly 7,000 times, with 90 percent of the viewers not being her followers and mostly men over the age of 44.

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Parents were upset not only by the widespread reach but also by the way the photos were promoted. The father of a 13-year-old child whose photo appeared in one of the ads called it “completely offensive” and said he was “disgusted” to see an innocent school photo in such a potentially sexual context.

Meta, a $2 trillion company, defended its actions. The company stated that the photos did not violate its community standards and were publicly shared by the parents themselves. A spokesperson said Meta’s system doesn’t promote content shared by teens, but in this case, the posts were uploaded from adult accounts with public settings.

Amid criticism, Meta stated that these are not paid advertisements but rather suggestive tools to promote threads. The company says the shared photos are not against its policies and are simply “back-to-school” content.

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