Hipsters beware. Instagram is being flooded with sexually explicit images, and there's nothing the company can do about it.

Users of the photo-sharing website are uploading tens of thousands of raunchy pictures under various pornography hashtags, which can be accessed by anyone using the site, the Huffington Post reported.

And while nude and sexually suggestive pictures are technically banned under Instagram’s terms of service, the company’s team of just 15 employees can’t keep up with the five million pictures uploaded to the website each day.

The fad – dubbed “instaporn” – not only involves users uploading images of genitalia and naked men and women, but also sees people soliciting each other for sex chat.

Global media expert Terri Senft told the Post that the trend was unsurprising.

“Instagram has moved from a niche thing to something people have heard about, and that means it has a critical mass,” said Ms Senft, from New York University’s Department of Liberal Studies.

“Whenever you have a critical mass on the internet, the sex shows up.”

The practice is an issue for parents because children as young as 13 are able to create an Instagram account, and there are few ways to protect them from the explicit images.

The craze is also a headache for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose company is in the process of taking over Instagram.

But the social networking site – which itself is often accused of being overly harsh with its censorship – will likely be able to help curb the deluge of sexually explicit images, with its employees numbering in the thousands.

A spokesperson for Instagram said: “We rely heavily on users to flag inappropriate content and we do our best to remove any media that we determine to be inappropriate.”

Originally published as Hipsters beware: 'Instaporn' is taking over