Dame Caroline Dinenage, Member of Parliament for Gosport, has today penned a letter to the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology calling on the Government to ensure Ofcom is fulfilling its duties to enforce the Online Safety Act.

 Seventeen Conservative MPs have signed the letter which describes recent instances of AI generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and sexually explicit images of women as ‘awful’ and calls into question existing enforcement mechanisms.

It comes after the Internet Watch Foundation identified multiple instances in which users on X (formerly Twitter) used Grok, to generate CSAM. The letter describes GrokAI as an enabling tool in the production of “the most severe forms of child sexual abuse imagery.”

Ofcom is the online safety regulator and in March 2025 Suzanne Cater, Enforcement Director at Ofcom said “make no mistake, any provider who fails to introduce the necessary protections can expect to face the full force of our enforcement action.”

Despite this, Ofcom has been slow to ensure platforms are complying with their duties under the Online Safety Act, which requires online platforms to put in place measures to protect people in the UK from criminal activity such as distributing sexualised images of children (Protection of Children Act 1978; Criminal Justice Act 1988) and sharing sexually explicit images of adults (Sexual Offences Act 2003; Data (Use and Access) Act 2025).

Today X has announced that Grok has switched off its image creation function after the Prime Minister demanded X “get a grip” of the deluge of CSAM on the platform. He described the content as “disgraceful” and “disgusting”. The Prime Minister also reiterated his support for Ofcom. Victim of non-consensual sexualised image generation Bella Wallersteiner said in the Times that “Without decisive action, there is a real risk that this technology will normalise sexual exploitation and digital abuse, shaping an online world in which girls and women are expected to tolerate harm as the price of participation.”

Caroline said: “Despite the news this morning that GrokAI will switch off its image creation function for non-subscribers, this is not a win in the fight against child abuse. This action has only turned criminals into X’s paying customers – not removed the incentive to break the law.

“It should not take a concerted campaign to get social media platforms to remove disgusting and harmful content from their platforms. The law is clear that platforms must protect users from child sexual abuse. Not only are they not doing that, but our own regulator is not enforcing the law swiftly or comprehensively.

“The Government should be using its influence with Ofcom to ensure that child sexual abuse is instantly removed from social media platforms.”