On Instagram, a jewellery ad draws solicitations for sex with a five-year-old

A photo illustration of a person looking at a photo on Instagram. Advertisers of merchandise for young girls find that adult men can become their unintended audience. In a test ad, convicted sex offenders inquired about a child model. — Amir Hamja/The New York Times

When a children’s jewellery-maker began advertising on Instagram, she promoted photos of a five-year-old girl wearing a sparkly charm to users interested in parenting, children, ballet and other topics identified by Meta as appealing mostly to women.

But when the merchant got the automated results of her ad campaign from Instagram, the opposite had happened: The ads had gone almost entirely to adult men.