Grok: Ofcom Update on the X Investigation and UK Restrictions

What Changed

In an update on 14 October 2026, Ofcom said it is focusing the rest of its Online Safety Act investigation into X on its illegal content and complaints and reporting duties, while it continues to monitor the effectiveness of X's age checks. Ofcom repeated that, when it opened the investigation in January, it could not investigate the creation of illegal images inside the standalone Grok service because of gaps in the way chatbots are covered under the Act. Ofcom says the company behind Grok has restricted people with UK IP addresses from viewing, generating or sharing pornographic content made with standalone Grok's image generation, restricted its companion chatbots, including 'Ani', from sexually explicit conversations with UK users, and, following engagement with Ofcom, restricted generating or viewing images of real people in revealing attire. Grok's own terms set a minimum age of 13 and say teenagers aged 13 to 17 must have a parent or guardian's permission; that is a terms requirement rather than a parental-control tool.

What to Review

• •Check whether your child uses Grok inside the X app or as a standalone app, and what they use it for.
• •Grok's terms say the company applies controls 'as required by applicable law' and encourage parents to monitor teenagers' use; they do not describe a named teen mode or parental dashboard.

Parent Actions