London, UK - Meta is under fire from parents after Instagram photos of young girls in school uniforms were reportedly used in ads designed to get users to sign up for Threads.

A 37-year-old man told the Guardian that he had been shown Instagram ads for Threads which clearly featured young girls in their school uniforms.

The images had been posted by parents on Instagram to mark their children's return to school, but they were automatically cross-posted to Threads.

Those Threads posts featuring the photos – which were set to "public viewing" – were then used to encourage Instagram users to "get Threads," according to the Guardian.

A father of one of the girls featured in the ad said that he thought it was "absolutely outrageous" when he found out about the use of his daughters' image.

"When I found out an image of her has been exploited in what felt like a sexualized way by a massive company like that to market their product it left me feeling quite disgusted," he told the Guardian.

Meta said that the use of those images were not against its policies because they were posted by adult accounts that were set to allow public viewing, including advertising.