UK ASA bans AI app ads for objectification and explicit content
The UK Advertising Standards Authority banned five advertisements on Meta for AI apps that objectified women and promoted creation of sexually explicit content, including one using sexualised images of a minor. The watchdog found the ads could cause real-world harm by encouraging creation of explicit content from people's images without consent.
What happened
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned five advertisements for AI apps on Meta platforms for promoting objectification of women and creation of sexually explicit content. One ad for an AI companion app by Animcha Ltd used sexualised images of a girl under 18, while ads for other AI apps invited users to upload images of their 'crush' and generate 'sizzling' videos or sexually explicit content.
The ASA identified the ads using its AI-powered Active Ad Monitoring System, which proactively searches for advertising rule violations. Meta had already removed the offending ads by the time the ASA announced the ban.
Reported impact
The ASA stated that many of the banned ads had promoted creation of sexually explicit content using real women's images without their consent. The watchdog said such content had potential to cause real-world harm and was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.
Index analysis
The ban follows UK legislation outlawing apps to create non-consensual deepfake nude imagery, enacted months earlier after outcry over X's chatbot Grok complying with requests to nudify images of women. The ASA said future ads identified as illegal would prompt notification to platforms and law enforcement.
Governance controls
The ASA uses an AI-powered Active Ad Monitoring System to proactively search for advertisements that violate UK rules. Meta removed the offending ads before the ASA's regulatory action.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.