ELON MUSK'S GROK AI IS SEXUALIZING AMERICAN CHILDREN
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, was used to generate millions of sexualized images of women and minors—including images depicting children in minimal clothing or altered into sexualized poses.
In late December 2025 and early January 2026, Grok posted more than 4.4 million images to its public account on X in just nine days. Roughly 65 percent of those images—more than three million—were sexualized depictions of people. Among them were more than 23,000 images involving children.
Child Safety Experts Raise Alarms
Child safety experts say the problem is not just the scale of the images, but the lack of safeguards built into the technology. Researchers have warned that Grok struggles to identify when a user is underage and lacks meaningful protections to prevent harmful content from being generated. The system can also produce inappropriate material—including sexual and violent content—making it unsafe for children and teenagers.
“We assess a lot of AI chatbots at Common Sense Media, and they all have risks, but Grok is among the worst we’ve seen,” said Robbie Torney, head of AI and digital assessments at Common Sense Media. He said several of Grok’s weaknesses reinforce one another in troubling ways: “Kids Mode doesn’t work, explicit material is pervasive, and everything can be instantly shared to millions of users on X.”
No Accountability From Musk or X
Despite the backlash, meaningful accountability has been limited. As criticism mounted online, Grok itself posted an apology for the images generated by the system. But Musk and X have not outlined a clear plan to address the problem. Musk largely dismissed the controversy, responding to posts highlighting AI-generated images of public figures with laughing emojis—including posts showing edited images of himself in a bikini.
While X later said it restricted some image-generation features to paid users, the technology has not fully disappeared. Similar capabilities can still be accessed through other parts of the platform or through Grok’s standalone app.
Our Children Deserve Better Protections
As parents, the situation is deeply troubling. Families are already trying to keep up with a rapidly evolving digital world, and tools like this make that task even more difficult. When an AI system can generate millions of sexualized images—including images involving children—and distribute them across a massive social platform in seconds, it raises serious concerns about whether basic safeguards are being treated as an afterthought.
Innovation should never come at the expense of child safety. Big tech companies developing powerful AI tools must take responsibility and ensure strong protections are in place before these technologies are allowed to reach millions of users.
