When an AI tool can ‘nudify’ a child, ‘we’re engaging’ is not good enough

When technology enables the rapid production and dissemination of exploitative material, the national response often sounds like a jargon of jurisdiction

The British regulator, Ofcom, has opened a formal investigation into X under the UK Online Safety Act. Malaysia and Indonesia have gone further, restricting or blocking access to Grok over the same concerns. Picture: Yui Mok/PA

As a former chair in Irish broadcasting media, I’m used to regulators asking detailed questions about broadcast minutiae — logs, complaints, scheduling, standards, and whether the public got what the licence promised. That culture of oversight matters. 

This is why the official response to the Grok controversy — where an AI tool on X has reportedly been used to generate and circulate sexualised, exploitative imagery involving children — has felt alarmingly weightless.