The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned five social media adverts for AI companion and video-generation apps after finding they promoted the sexualisation and objectification of women, including one that depicted a girl under 18 in a sexual manner. The ruling matters because it comes just months after the UK made non-consensual deepfake nude apps illegal, following outrage over X's Grok chatbot being used to "nudify" images of women, and highlights ongoing concerns about AI tools being marketed to create explicit content from real people's photos without consent.

The banned ads, all uploaded to Meta platforms and already removed by Meta before the ASA's action, included one for an AI companion app by Animcha Ltd that sexualised a childlike character, two for portrait tool Nexaipic inviting users to upload a "crush" for explicit videos, and others for apps called KH31 DD22, Rusto AI and PictoPop that transformed or manipulated women's images into sexualised content. The ASA said it identified the ads using its "Active Ad Monitoring System" and that none of the app developers responded to its enquiries; it warned future illegal ads could be referred to platforms and law enforcement. Separately, researcher Alexios Mantzarlis reported finding over 11,000 similar ads on Meta's platforms in early September, though Meta says it has taken action against nudification apps and declined further comment.