Case iwf-grok-child-sexual-imageryDeepfake abuseWorldwide
IWF says Grok appears to have generated sexual imagery of girls aged 11-13
The Internet Watch Foundation says its analysts found criminal imagery of girls aged 11-13 on a dark-web forum that appears to have been created using xAI's Grok; forum users claimed to have used Grok Imagine, and the images were not found on X itself.
HighAttack using AIStatus: Under investigationVerified case file
Open in the interactive mapCite this case
- Reported
- Jan 7, 2026
- Location
- Worldwide
- Target
- Girls aged 11-13 depicted in AI-generated imagery
- Severity
- High
- Verification
- Reported by credible press or researchers
- Triggered by
- Unknown users of Grok (xAI)
- Actor type
- Unknown
- Sector
- Individuals & consumers
- Reported loss
- None reported
- CVE
- None
What happened
The Internet Watch Foundation says its analysts found criminal imagery of girls aged 11-13 on a dark-web forum that appears to have been created using xAI's Grok; forum users claimed to have used Grok Imagine, and the images were not found on X itself.
Impact: Criminal imagery of girls aged 11-13 was found by IWF analysts; the number of images is not given.
Who triggered it
Actor: Unknown users of Grok (xAI)
Attribution: The Internet Watch Foundation says the imagery appears to have been created with Grok; users are not identified.
Motive: Unknown
How it happened
Attack vector: Prompting the Grok image generation tool, owned by xAI, to produce sexualised images of children.
Root cause: Unknown; the summary does not describe Grok's safeguards.
Timeline
- Reported by AI Incident Database
Response
Unknown; the summary gives no company or regulator response.
Current status: Under investigation
Sources (open in a new tab)
- AI Incident Database bbc.com
- NBC News nbcnews.com
Cite this case
IWF says Grok appears to have generated sexual imagery of girls aged 11-13. AI Threat Watch, case iwf-grok-child-sexual-imagery, Jan 7, 2026. https://aithreat.io/cases/iwf-grok-child-sexual-imagery/
Permanent link: https://aithreat.io/cases/iwf-grok-child-sexual-imagery/
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