Britons have been warned that online child sexual abuse is rising at an alarming rate, and called for stronger protections for children.
Arabella Skinner, from Healthcare Professionals for Safer Screens, highlighted the risks posed by social media platforms such as X and Snapchat, where many children are being exposed to sexual content.
The comments come after Elon Musk’s social media platform X faces a potential ban in the UK.
Grok, the AI chatbot on the platform, faced substantial public outcry after fulfilling user requests to digitally remove clothing from photographs of individuals without their permission.
Users attempting to generate such content are now informed that only those with paid subscriptions can access the image editing functionality.
This change means that anyone seeking to use the feature must have their identity and payment information registered with the platform, creating a traceable record of users.
Speaking on GB News, Ms Skinner said: “I mean, it’s a mad situation. We have rules across everything else. For example, with film ages, we have laws around watersheds but we didn’t have this online.
“We’ve only just put in age verification for pornography. But we know that no one has been effectively enforcing this.
Arabella Skinner said that it is ‘absolute madness online’ for children
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GB NEWS
“We’ve had a couple of things come from Ofcom, but the process is incredibly slow, and companies particularly those based in the US are just ignoring it.
“If we want to protect our children, it’s madness even to have this conversation. No one can accept that child sexual imagery, whether live or AI-generated, is acceptable.
“The online world and AI have changed the dynamic of what is considered ‘normal,’ and we have to respond.”
GB News host Michael Portillo said: “I imagine that creating a naked image of an adult would not be against the law. Would I be right about that?”
Elon Musk said anyone using Grok to make illegal content would ‘suffer the same consequences’ as if they uploaded it themselves | REUTERS
“There is a notification app law coming through the Crime and Policing Bill, so it will be coming in fairly soon. At the moment, it isn’t, although there are elements around revenge porn.
“So there is legal coverage for revenge porn. As you’ll know, we’ve made this exceptionally complex things you would expect to be automatic don’t automatically come online from offline.
“But this is being addressed under the Crime and Policing Bill. We are getting very caught up in other stories for example, Elon Musk talking about censorship.
“Yes, we have to be careful about free speech, it’s incredibly important, but when we’re talking about children, the priority is protecting them, both in terms of what they are seeing and how they are being treated.
“The increase in child sexual abuse online is astronomical. What’s really disturbing is that huge amounts of this content is self-generated by children.
“Very young children are being groomed through social media.
“Last year, there was a 65 per cent increase in seven to 10-year-olds producing content that they then share online. That is terrifying it is not normal.
“Health professionals see the impact of this every day and it affects children’s mental health, social relationships, and their understanding of romantic and sexual relationships.
“Platforms like Twitter, now X, are particularly concerning.
“About half of 13-year-olds have seen pornography and 27 per cent of children have seen it in primary school, which is an awful statistic.
“They don’t tend to actively seek it out, but the latest data suggests that 45 per cent of the content they find comes via X and Snapchat, rather than dedicated websites.
“We need to absolutely protect our children. Once they’ve seen this content, it can’t be unseen.”