The UK’s advertising regulator has banned several social media ads promoting AI tools that can digitally undress or sexualize people in photos. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled against five paid ads that appeared on Meta platforms on September 16, 2026. It found that the ads sexualized and objectified women and could cause serious or widespread offence.
One case also involved a potential child-safety concern. An ad for an AI companion app showed a person who appeared to be under 18 in a sexualized situation. The ASA said this also broke rules designed to protect children from harmful advertising.
The rulings are part of growing regulatory attention on how generative AI tools are advertised online. However, the ASA did not ban all AI nudification services in the UK. Its action focused on the specific advertisements investigated. The regulator ordered the ads not to appear again in the form that was complained about and referred the cases to its compliance team.
Five AI Ads Were Banned by the UK Advertising Regulator
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld five complaints about paid advertisements that appeared on Meta platforms. The rulings were issued on September 16, 2026.
The ads promoted five AI services: tyan.ai, Nexaipic, KH31 DD22, Rusto AI, and PictoPop. According to the ASA, all five ads presented women in a sexualized and objectified way. The regulator said the advertisements broke rules covering social responsibility, harm and offence, and harmful gender stereotypes.
| AI Service | Type of Tool | What the Ad Promoted |
| KH31 DD22 | AI image-to-video generator | AI-generated sexualized content involving women |
| Rusto AI | AI image generator | Creation or manipulation of images |
| PictoPop | AI image-to-video app | AI-generated video content |
| Nexaipic | AI portrait-generation tool | AI-generated or modified portraits |
| tyan.ai | AI companion generator | AI-generated interactions and sexualized imagery |
The tyan.ai case raised an additional child-safety concern because the advertisement appeared to show a person who looked under 18 in a sexualized situation. The ASA therefore found that the ad also breached rules intended to protect children from harmful advertising.
The ASA said it identified these advertisements through its Active Ad Monitoring system. The system uses AI to scan online advertising and identify ads that may break UK advertising rules.
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KH31 DD22 Ad Showed a Woman’s Photo Being Turned Into Sexual Content
One of the cases involved KH31 DD22, an AI image-to-video tool. The advertisement showed a woman wearing a crop top and skirt. It then showed the woman being digitally altered into a sexualized video. The ad also displayed a tool interface that appeared to allow users to upload a photograph and turn it into a video.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said viewers could understand the advertisement as promoting a tool that could take a photograph of a woman and turn it into sexual content.
The regulator said the ad treated the woman as a sexual object and promoted the idea that women could be used mainly for sexual purposes. It also said the advertisement appeared to support the use of women’s images to create sexual content without their consent.
The advertiser did not respond to the ASA’s investigation. Meta confirmed that the advertisement had appeared on its platform and said it violated Meta’s own advertising policies. Meta had already removed the ad before the ASA began its investigation.
UK Regulator Examines How AI Portrait Tools Are Advertised
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) also investigated two advertisements for Nexaipic, an AI portrait-generation service.
One of the ads used the phrase “deep fantasies” and showed a woman’s partly covered face. The ASA said the combination of the wording and imagery sexualized and objectified women.
The case shows that the regulator is looking at more than advertisements that directly describe an AI tool as a “nudify” service. It is also examining the language, images and overall message used to promote AI products and what they suggest users can do with people’s photographs.
This is important because many AI image and video services are marketed as general-purpose creative tools rather than openly advertising themselves as nudification services. The ASA’s rulings show that regulators can also assess how these tools are presented in advertisements and whether the content creates concerns under UK advertising rules.
AI Companion Ad Raises Child-Safety Concerns
The tyan.ai case involved an advertisement for an AI companion-generation service that appeared on Meta platforms.
According to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the ad sexualized and objectified women and also showed a person who appeared to be under 18 in a sexualized setting. The regulator therefore found that the advertisement breached rules covering social responsibility, harm and offence, and harmful gender stereotypes.
The case also highlights a separate concern about children and AI-generated sexual content. Tools that can create or alter sexual images can potentially be used to target children or create sexualized images of them.
The Children’s Commissioner for England has previously raised concerns about the growing use of “nudifying” tools. Its research found that women and girls make up the large majority of people represented in sexually explicit deepfake images online and warned about the risks these technologies can pose to children.
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UK Advertising Rules Apply to AI-Generated Content
The ASA’s action is based on existing advertising rules rather than a separate AI advertising law. The regulator has made clear that the CAP Code applies regardless of whether an advertisement was created using AI.
In June 2026, the ASA said that AI-generated advertising remains subject to the same rules as other advertising. Advertisers remain responsible for checking AI-generated outputs for harmful or discriminatory stereotypes, misleading claims and inappropriate content.
The ASA’s guidance specifically warns that AI does not create an exception to advertising standards. This is essential because generative AI allows advertisers to produce large volumes of images and videos quickly. The regulator’s position is that automation does not transfer responsibility away from the advertiser.
How the ASA Has Responded to Harmful AI Advertising
The September 2026 rulings are part of a wider effort by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to address advertisements that sexualize or objectify women. In March 2025, the ASA published findings from a three-month monitoring exercise that reviewed 5,923 advertisements across 14 gaming apps. The regulator identified eight harmful ads during the period.
These included sexual stereotypes, suggestions of non-consensual sexual activity and pornographic themes. The ASA also said it had upheld complaints about 11 similar advertisements between 2023 and 2024.
The regulator has paid particular attention to AI chat and romance apps, where advertisements can contain sexual or suggestive material even when they appear inside apps where users may not expect to see it.
The ASA continued its work on AI-related advertising in 2026. In a March 2026 ruling involving an AI video-making service, the regulator found that an advertisement appeared to support digitally altering women’s bodies and exposing them without their consent.
This shows that the ASA is examining both the content of AI advertisements and the way AI tools are presented to consumers, particularly where sexualized content, consent and potential harm are involved.
Meta Has Also Taken Action Against Nudify Ads
The advertising rulings come alongside efforts by Meta to remove nudification services from its platforms. Meta said in June 2025 that it prohibited the promotion of nudify apps and similar services.
It said its policies prohibit non-consensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated material, and that it removes advertisements, pages and accounts promoting these services when identified.
Meta also said it had taken legal action against the company behind CrushAI, alleging that the service allowed users to create AI-generated nude or sexually explicit images of people without their consent. According to Meta, it removed more than 344,000 advertisements promoting nudify apps from Facebook and Instagram between November 2025 and January 2026.
UK Law Creates New Offences for AI Nudification Tools
The ASA’s action comes alongside a separate change in UK criminal law aimed specifically at tools that can be used to create fake intimate images.
The Crime and Policing Act 2026 created new offences covering the making, adapting, supplying or offering to supply tools designed to create or help create purported intimate images. The government specifically describes these as “nudification” tools or apps. The new offence came into force on June 29, 2026, in England and Wales.
Under the law, a person can commit an offence if they make, adapt or supply a tool for creating purported intimate images and a reasonable person would consider that the tool was intended for that purpose.
The law also provides a defence if the person can show that they took all reasonable steps to prevent the tool from being misused to create intimate images without consent. The maximum penalty for the relevant offence is three years in prison and/or an unlimited fine on conviction on indictment.
This is separate from the ASA’s action against the five advertisements. The ASA deals with advertising standards, while the Crime and Policing Act creates criminal offences relating to the making and supply of certain intimate-image generators.
The UK now has two separate regulatory approaches to AI nudification tools:
- Advertising regulation: The ASA can rule that an advertisement breaches the CAP Code and require it not to appear again in the investigated form.
- Criminal law: The Crime and Policing Act 2026 creates offences targeting the making and supply of certain intimate-image generators.
ASA Examines How AI Sexualization Tools Are Marketed
The latest rulings show that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is looking beyond the final images created by AI tools. It is also examining how these products are advertised and whether their marketing presents women as objects whose images can be changed for sexual purposes.
This matters because advertisements can introduce these capabilities to large audiences, even when people have not searched for such tools themselves. In the KH31 DD22 case, for example, the advertisement showed how an ordinary photograph of a woman could be changed into sexual content. The ASA considered the advertisement irresponsible because it appeared to promote the sexual manipulation of women’s images.
The issue is therefore not simply what an AI system can generate. The ASA is also looking at how companies promote these capabilities, whose images can be manipulated and whether advertisements encourage the creation of sexual content without consent.
UK Regulators Expand Oversight of AI Sexualization Tools
The September 2026 rulings do not mean that all AI image-generation or AI companion advertisements are banned in the UK. Instead, they show that regulators are paying closer attention to ads that sexualize women, promote the creation of explicit content from people’s photos, or show minors in sexualized situations.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has said its work on AI advertising is continuing. Its Active Ad Monitoring system uses technology to identify advertisements that may break UK advertising rules, allowing the regulator to investigate potential problems more proactively.
The UK’s new criminal offences covering certain intimate-image generators create a separate set of rules for the tools themselves. This means action can be taken at different stages, including the supply of AI tools, the way they are advertised, and the protection of people whose images may be used without their consent.
For AI companies, the distinction between an image generator, video tool or AI companion does not remove their responsibilities. The way a product is marketed can still raise regulatory concerns if its advertising promotes sexualization, objectification or the non-consensual manipulation of people’s images.
