politics
Report: Explicit Content Recommended to Simulated 13-Year-Old X Accounts
A report by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate tested X's content policies using simulated UK-based 13-year-old accounts. The tests showed explicit material in search results and recommendations. The findings relate to compliance with the UK's Online Safety Act.
Apr 15, 2:23 PM·3m read1 source
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A report published by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate examined X's handling of adult content for young users. Researchers created two accounts simulating 13-year-old boys and girls in the UK to assess search results, algorithms, profiles, and Communities.
The study aimed to evaluate X's adult content policy under the Online Safety Act, which requires platforms to protect children from harmful material.
' The report stated that 80 percent of these searches returned explicit results within the first ten media-containing outcomes. Examples included videos and images of oral sex and a woman masturbating on a sofa, with no age verification, content warnings, or filters applied. 5 percent.
The accounts joined 15 out of 20 tested adult sexual communities without restrictions. These communities, such as 'Virgin Trades,' 'Onlyfans virgin club +18,' 'Kink Kings & Queens,' and 'Goon Group,' contained posts with sexual and transactional content, including offers of nude images.
assess direct contact risks, researchers liked posts in communities where users offered messages for engagement.
The teen accounts received direct message requests from adult accounts, bypassing default settings that limit messages to followed users. One such message included an unsolicited video of a man masturbating. The Online Safety Act, enforced since mid-2023, mandates age limits and safeguards against harmful content for child users.
Non-compliant platforms face fines of 10 percent of global annual revenue or £18 million, whichever is higher. Adult sites like PornHub have implemented age verification for UK visitors as a result. Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, has investigated over 100 platforms, including X, for compliance.
Earlier this year, Ofcom probed X's Grok AI for generating sexual deepfakes, including of children. An NBC News report on April 14, 2026, indicated that Grok continued to produce such content despite X's stated measures.
