LAST UPDATE | 8 Jan

IF YOU’RE appalled by the news that Elon Musk’s AI bot Grok is churning out non-consensual, deepfake sexual images of children, women and men on the social media platform X – well, join the club.

The government and regulators haven’t exactly raced out of the traps on this one, even though it is very much illegal in Ireland to share non-consensual intimate images or to generate child sexual abuse material.

Ireland’s Coimisiún na Meán is “engaging with the European Commission”. The latter says it’s “very seriously looking” into complaints. Government ministers are “shocked” and “disgusted” – but won’t do anything until CnaM and Brussels’ investigations have run their course. Grok, for its part, says it’s working away on fixing “lapses in safeguards”. 

Meanwhile, the scandal has acutely focused public attention on online safety, and in particular the protection of children’s images and identities.

We asked experts for their top tips for parents. Here’s what they told us.

1. Limit who can see your kids

The main message that came through from the experts we spoke to was simple: it is essential to impose limits on who can see any images you post of your children online.

Mick Moran, CEO of Hotline, the national reporting centre for illegal online content including child sexual abuse material, said: “I have zero problem with people sharing pictures of their kids online – which might come as a surprise to people – but only as long as it’s within a sealed network.”

“If you’re sharing pictures globally, you are making a big mistake,” Moran said.

Every social media app allows you to create a closed network – they might not make it obvious, but it’s important to figure it out. 

An image posted to a public account could become popular – bringing the potential that it will be seen by thousands of people online. Everyone The Journal spoke to recommended the Data Protection Campaign’s recent hard-hitting advertising campaign about the implications of posting about kids online.

Every time you share their life online, you risk sharing their personal data with the world. Pause before you post. pic.twitter.com/dN5qRfWkv5

— Data Protection Commission Ireland (@DPCIreland) November 24, 2025

Tech journalist and host of the For Tech’s Sake podcast Elaine Burke advises that when you make your account private, be sure to curate your list of followers. Do you know all of these people and do you want them to see pictures of your kids? 

Instagram is the social media app other than WhatsApp that is most used to share personal updates. You can consider posting updates as Instagram “Stories”, which only last for 24 hours – as opposed to “grid” posts which remain online indefinitely unless you take them down.

But always bear in mind that posting to a private account is still not a perfect system. Your friends’ accounts can be hacked, and there’s nothing to stop people taking screenshots, Burke said. (This also applies to Instagram Stories.)

In theory, accounts set up by under-18s should be private by default – but you should check your kids’ accounts.

2. Talk to friends, family – and your kids

With this in mind, it’s important to have a conversation with people you’re sharing images with.

Burke says she would never forward a picture of a friend’s child’s milestones. If you don’t want people in your circle to share pictures of your children more widely, it’s important to tell them that.

Now for the hard bit. Many teenagers – and even children – have their own social media accounts and are posting content online.

Alex Cooney, CEO of the charity CyberSafeKids, says it’s vital to keep talking to children and teenagers about what they’re doing online.

If the worst were to happen and a child is exploited online, “it’s really important they can come to a trusted adult”, Cooney said.

Cooney says children and teens should feel they can talk to their parents without facing the threat of the technology being taken away, as this can make them less likely to come forward.

She advises holding off on allowing children to have their own device and accounts for as long as possible, and making children use their screens in the same room as an adult.

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3. Schools and sports clubs need to think twice

Schools, sports clubs, summer camps – it’s not just parents and kids themselves who post images online.

It takes just a few minutes on Instagram or TikTok to find photos and videos of kids, their full names, the school they attend and what year they’re in – because Irish schools are posting this content themselves. 

Burke says every organisation working with children needs to think hard about their approach to posting online. It’s essential that organisations have a policy in this area, Burke said.

“Minimising the information being shared – a photo but no names – is one small step you can take,” Burke said.

Moran, of Hotline, believes kids’ organisations should share images in a private social media account rather than with the wider world, and share only text with the wider internet. So, for example, it’s fine to share on your club’s social media account that you won the match, but you don’t need to publicly post a picture of the winning goal, or a kid holding up the cup.

Moran says parents who are not happy with the online approach of their kids’ school or club need to withdraw consent for their image to be used. 

4. Use your voice

Parents need to be vigilant – but “none of this takes away from the need for regulation”, said Cooney of CyberSafeKids.

Grok is an important test case, Cooney said.

“What will our regulator do about it? We should be giving [Grok] a time frame and saying ‘you need to disable this user prompt within this time frame or face a sanction or be geo-blocked’. We cannot be slow to act. It is illegal to share intimate images or to create intimate images of a child.

“Parents should be using their voices and saying ‘this is not good enough’. I would obviously urge people to do everything they can in their own households – but we should be saying to policymakers: ‘What are you doing about this? Where are the sanctions?’ I would like to see more mobilisation.”

Many groups of parents are getting together in schools across Ireland to agree not to get their children smartphones until secondary school – online safety may be the next frontier for this type of action.