Description: An Instagram ad campaign for children's merchandise was intended to reach adult women but was instead predominantly shown to adult men, including convicted sex offenders, due to Instagram's algorithmic targeting. This failure is reported to have led to direct solicitations for sex with a 5-year-old model in the ads.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Meta developed an AI system deployed by Meta and Instagram, which harmed Instagram users , Instagram sellers and Children.
Incident Stats
Risk Subdomain
A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
1.2. Exposure to toxic content
Risk Domain
The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
- Discrimination and Toxicity
Entity
Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
AI
Timing
The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
Post-deployment
Intent
Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Unintentional
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
When a children's jewelry maker began advertising on Instagram, she promoted photos of a 5-year-old girl wearing a sparkly charm to users interested in parenting, children, ballet and other topics identified by Meta as appealing mostly to w…
The mom started the Instagram account three years ago as a pandemic-era diversion---a way for her and her daughter, a preteen dancer, to share photos with family, friends and other young dancers and moms. The two bonded, she said, as they p…
Variants
A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
Similar Incidents
Did our AI mess up? Flag the unrelated incidents

Fake LinkedIn Profiles Created Using GAN Photos
· 4 reports
Sexist and Racist Google Adsense Advertisements
· 27 reports
Similar Incidents
Did our AI mess up? Flag the unrelated incidents

Fake LinkedIn Profiles Created Using GAN Photos
· 4 reports
Sexist and Racist Google Adsense Advertisements
· 27 reports