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Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man

Exclusive: Instagram pictures of girls as young as 13 were posted to promote Threads site ‘as bait’, campaigner says

The 37-year-old Instagram user from London who received the posts and asked to remain anonymous said: “Over several days I was repeatedly served Meta adverts for Threads that exclusively featured parents’ images of their daughters in school uniform, some revealing their names. Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer and campaigner for children’s rights online, said: “Offering up school-age girls as bait to advertise a commercial service is a new low even for Meta. Ofcom’s illegal harms codes intended to tackle online grooming require that “children’s profiles and locations – as well as friends and connections – should not be visible to other users”.

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