Experts claim the scale and speed of sexualised content following the launch of Grok’s image-generating feature on 29 December raises serious questions about online safety.
Newly-analysed research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) provided insight into the volume of sexual images being generated by users of the chatbot.
CCDH also noted that 29% of sexualised images of children identified in their sample of 20,000 remained on X as of 15 January.
A CCDH spokesperson said: “Our research estimates that Grok generated approximately three million sexualised images, including 23,000 that appear to depict children, based on a manually reviewed, representative sample.
“That is a shocking rate of one sexualised image of a child every 41 seconds.”
Some of these still available posts included images of young girls wearing micro bikinis, generated by Grok after prompting.
A statement by X on 14 January said: “We have implemented technological measures to prevent the [@]Grok account on X globally from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis.
“This restriction applies to all users, including paid subscribers.
“We remain committed to making X a safe platform for everyone and continue to have zero tolerance for any forms of child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content.”
However, investigations by The Guardian found that the chatbot was still responding to prompts to digitally remove clothing from images of women.
The findings come amid growing concern about the negative impacts of social media and artificial intelligence, particularly for women and young people.
Ofcom’s recent Online Nation report, published in December, found that adults are less positive about the internet’s societal impact than they were last year.
Only a third of adults felt that the internet was beneficial for society in June 2025, down 10% from the previous year.
Furthermore, child sexual abuse content remains the online harm that concerns adults the most, and worries around fake or deceptive content have continued to rise year on year.
Women were significantly more likely than men to express concern about online harms and call for stronger online safety measures on social media platforms.
Ofcom’s findings highlight how emerging generative AI tools risk magnifying online harms the public already considers concerning.
Center for Countering Digital Hate CEO Imran Ahmed said: “Belated fixes cannot undo this harm.
“We must hold Big Tech accountable for giving abusers the power to victimise women and girls at the click of a button.”
On 12 January, Ofcom announced it had opened a formal investigation into X under the UK’s Online Safety Act.
The investigation follows growing scrutiny of the platform’s approach to online safety and content moderation.
Jess Phillips, Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, said: “The use of AI tools to create degrading, non-consensual images is an absolute disgrace.
“Lives can be devastated by tools like this being used to create intimate images to abuse, torment and harass people and the crime disproportionately targets women and girls.
“Our new VAWG strategy sets out how the full power of the state will be deployed online and offline to deliver the largest ever crackdown on violence against women and girls in British history and will prevent women and girls from being harmed in the first place.
“With government, tech companies and society united, we can turn the tide on the torrent of non-consensual sexual deepfakes currently flooding the internet so that people can enjoy life online, safe from fear and abuse.”
Featured image credit: Salvador Rios on Unsplash
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