The regulator said it had reviewed evidence and decided to examine whether Telegram has failed, or is failing, to meet its legal duties on illegal content under the Online Safety Act 2023.

The case adds to complaints on online platforms operating in the United Kingdom, where authorities want stronger protection for children from harm online.

Ofcom said the law requires platforms to reduce risks linked to illegal material and act where such content appears. It added that companies must be able to show they are meeting those duties.

Telegram rejected the allegations.

The company said it “categorically” denied Ofcom’s accusations. It added that since 2018 it had “virtually eliminated” the public spread of child sexual abuse material through detection algorithms.

Telegram also said, “We are surprised by this investigation and concerned that it may be part of a broader attack on online platforms that defend freedom of speech and the right to privacy.”

The regulator also opened separate investigations into Teen Chat and Chat Avenue. It said it was unconvinced that both platforms were doing enough to protect children from grooming risks.

Suzanne Cater, Ofcom’s director of Enforcement, said, “These firms must do more to protect children, or face serious consequences under the Online Safety Act.”

The inquiry comes as Keir Starmer’s government pushes for tighter online safeguards, especially for younger users.

Telegram has faced similar cases elsewhere. In February, Australia’s online safety regulator fined the company after delays in answering questions about measures against child abuse and violent extremist material.

The UK law is considered one of the strictest internet safety frameworks in the world. It places direct responsibility on platforms to tackle illegal and harmful content or risk enforcement action.

The company says the feature works in the background, scanning account-level and behavioural signals to judge whether an account is likely run by someone under 18. 

When that threshold is crossed, content limits are switched on automatically. The idea, OpenAI argues, is to give teens a safer version of the product without forcing every user through upfront identity checks.

This is a response to  complaints the company has received over how its tools affect children. OpenAI has been warned by regulators over past incidents involving young users, and this rollout reveals a transition from reactive fixes to a more systemic safeguard.

According to OpenAI, the age prediction system looks at factors such as how long an account has existed, typical usage times, long-term patterns, and the age a user claims when signing up. 

No single signal decides the result. Instead, they are weighed together to reach a probability-based judgement.

When an account is flagged as under 18, ChatGPT applies restrictions around sensitive areas. These include graphic violence, depictions of self-harm, sexual or violent role play, risky online challenges, and content that promotes extreme body ideals or unhealthy dieting. If the system is unsure about someone’s age, it defaults to the safer setting.

OpenAI said in its announcement: “We’re rolling out age prediction on ChatGPT consumer plans to help determine whether an account likely belongs to someone under 18, so the right experience and safeguards can be applied to teens.”

Adults who are wrongly placed into the under-18 experience are not locked out permanently. They can verify their age through Persona, a third-party identity service, by submitting a live selfie and, in some regions, a government-issued ID. OpenAI maintains that it does not receive copies of these documents, only confirmation of age.

The company is also leaning on parental controls, allowing guardians to set usage limits, restrict features such as memory, and receive alerts if signs of serious distress appear. These tools, OpenAI says, are optional but designed to give families more oversight.

The rollout is already live in many regions, with Europe scheduled to follow in the coming weeks due to regulatory requirements. OpenAI says it will monitor how the system performs and adjust it over time, refining which signals are most important and closing gaps where users try to bypass safeguards.

The alliance of women’s rights groups, parent advocates and political organisations are accusing the Elon Musk-owned services of breaching app store regulations and exposing women and children to abuse. 

In the open letters released on Wednesday, the campaigners say the apps are being used to generate illegal and degrading material at scale.

At the centre of the campaign are groups including UltraViolet, the National Organisation for Women, MoveOn and ParentsTogether Action. They argue that the continued availability of X and Grok on app stores gives legitimacy to tools that are being misused to create sexualised images without consent.

“We are really imploring Apple and Google to take this extremely seriously,” Jenna Sherman, UltraViolet’s campaign director, said ahead of the letters’ publication. “They are enabling a system in which thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people, particularly women and children, are being sexually abused through the help of their own app stores.”

The issue got worse after X was flooded around the new year with highly realistic images of women and minors, many of them sexualised. While X later adjusted Grok so that images it creates or edits are not automatically shared publicly, tests carried out this week showed the chatbot could still generate bikini-clad versions of people’s photos on request.

Outside the United States, regulators from Malaysia and Indonesia became the first countries to ban Grok in January 2026 due to the creation of sexually explicit and non-consensual images. 

In Europe, the Commission has ordered X to preserve Grok-related records until the end of 2026 as part of an investigation under the Digital Services Act. Authorities in the UK and several other countries have also demanded explanations over how the tool is being used.

Whereas, in Washington, three Democratic senators have written to Apple and Google, urging them to remove X and Grok from their app stores and warning of the risks they project on women and children if the apps remain available.

Some organisations are no longer waiting for regulators or tech firms to decide. This week, the American Federation of Teachers announced it was leaving X, calling Grok’s Al-generated child images “the last straw.” For campaigners, that decision is being held up as proof that the issue has crossed a line.

Responses from the companies involved have been limited. X did not reply to requests for comment. Its parent company, xAI, responded to criticism with the words, “Legacy Media Lies.” Apple and Google have also declined to comment publicly, despite repeated requests.

Sherman said the moment is a test of credibility for the app store operators. While both companies usually stress their commitment to child safety, she argued that their handling of X and Grok would show “what their values actually are in practice.”

The company says it is working to quickly close those gaps, calling the content illegal and unacceptable.

Users have shared screenshots showing Grok’s public media feed populated with altered images. In several cases, people uploaded photos and asked the chatbot to modify them. The results, according to Grok, crossed a legal and ethical line.

“There are isolated cases where users prompted for and received AI images depicting minors in minimal clothing,” Grok said in a public post. “xAI has safeguards, but improvements are ongoing to block such requests entirely.”

The chatbot went further, acknowledging internal failures. “As noted, we’ve identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them—CSAM is illegal and prohibited.” Grok did not explain how long the issue lasted or how many users were affected.

In another exchange on X, the chatbot tried to put the incident in context, arguing that most harmful outputs can be stopped before they appear. It added that “no system is 100% foolproof”, while saying xAI is strengthening its filters and reviewing reports from users.

Regulators in both the United States and Europe are warning that generative tools can be misused to create child sexual abuse material, even when no real child is involved. 

Under the EU’s AI Act and existing child protection laws, companies are expected to prevent such content outright, making any failure a potential legal risk.

Advocacy groups have also argued that AI-generated abuse material, though synthetic, can still encourage harmful behaviour and demand. From that perspective, the Grok incident exposes how fragile current safety systems can be when faced with determined users.

Grok is xAI’s flagship product and is tightly integrated into X, formerly Twitter. It is marketed as a challenger to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, with an emphasis on humour and a rebellious tone. 

Reports say that same positioning may complicate efforts to enforce strict safety boundaries, especially on a platform already criticised for weak moderation.

On public reactions, images attributed to Grok spread quickly on X, prompting a new case of Elon Musk’s approach to content control. When Reuters contacted xAI for comment, the company responded with a short message: “Legacy Media Lies”.

That reply has only added to the issue about transparency and responsibility in the AI sector. Warnings about trust in chatbots being eroded if companies appear dismissive when serious safety concerns emerge, have been released, particularly where child protection is involved.

For now, xAI says fixes on the safety of Grok are underway.

In response to issues over online child exploitation, sextortion, and grooming tactics that continue to surface across digital platforms, the new measures strengthen protections in two key areas: direct messaging features for teen users and account settings for profiles managed by adults that prominently feature children. 

Instagram’s teen accounts will now come with more explicit safety tools within direct messages (DMs). Users will be able to see when the account messaging them joined Instagram, access instant safety tips, and use a new feature that combines the block and report options in a single action. The aim is to make it easier for teenagers to cut off suspicious contacts and flag potential violators.

Meta said these additions build on existing safety notices that encourage caution during private chats. Data from June shows that teens took action after receiving these alerts, blocking over 1 million accounts and reporting another 1 million.

Also introduced is the “Location Notice,” which alerts users if they are communicating with someone in a different country, a feature designed to disrupt common tactics used in sextortion scams. The company says one in ten users tapped on the notice to learn more about their options for protection.

Nudity protection, another key feature, remains turned on by default for teen accounts. Meta disclosed that 99% of users, teens included, have opted to keep the filter active. In June alone, more than 40% of blurred images sent via DMs remained unopened, helping reduce exposure to graphic content.

“In May, people decided against forwarding around 45% of the time after seeing this warning,” Meta added.

In a parallel effort, Meta is extending parts of these protections to Instagram accounts managed by adults that focus heavily on children. These include parent-run profiles and accounts controlled by talent managers of young influencers. 

While Instagram prohibits under-13s from independently owning accounts, exceptions are made for accounts marked as being adult-managed on the child’s behalf.

Unfortunately, these accounts have also been targeted by abusers. According to Meta, some users have left sexualised comments or sent inappropriate DMs in violation of platform rules. The company is responding by automatically applying its strictest message settings to these profiles and enabling “Hidden Words,” a feature that filters out offensive language in comments.

Users managing such accounts will receive a notification at the top of their feed alerting them to these changes and prompting them to review their privacy settings.

Meta is also taking steps to make these child-focused accounts harder to discover for adults flagged as suspicious, especially those previously blocked by teens. The platform will prevent such adults from finding these profiles via search, hide their comments, and avoid suggesting either party to each other through recommendations. 

This builds on previous restrictions, including blocking such accounts from offering subscriptions or receiving digital gifts.

So far this year, Meta has taken down nearly 135,000 Instagram accounts for violating child protection rules, specifically those caught soliciting sexual content or making inappropriate comments on accounts featuring children. A further 500,000 accounts on both Facebook and Instagram connected to those flagged profiles were also removed.

“While these accounts are overwhelmingly used in benign ways, unfortunately, there are people who may try to abuse them, leaving sexualised comments under their posts or asking for sexual images in DMs, in clear violation of our rules,” Meta wrote.

Meta has not limited its response to its own platform. The company is sharing intelligence about abusive accounts with other tech firms through the Tech Coalition’s Lantern programme, acknowledging that predators often operate across multiple services.

This announcement also lands as regulators and child safety advocates, including the U.S. Surgeon General, among others, have criticised platforms like Instagram over their mental health impact on minors. Some U.S. states have even introduced laws requiring parental consent for underage social media use.