Grok AI Chatbot Not Safe for Teens, Common Sense Media Report Finds

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 27, 2026—Common Sense Media today released a new risk assessment finding that the xAI chatbot Grok is not safe for teens, citing the chatbot's inadequate identification of users under 18, weak safety guardrails, and frequent generation of sexual, violent, and inappropriate material.

Grok offers text and voice chat, image and video generation, and AI companions. The chatbot is built into X, the website formerly known as Twitter, making it easy for AI-generated material—true or false—to be posted publicly and go viral. Grok and its parent company, xAI, are under investigation for the proliferation of explicit AI-generated images of women and children.

"We assess a lot of AI chatbots at Common Sense Media, and they all have risks—but Grok is among the worst we've seen," said Robbie Torney, Head of AI and Digital Assessments at Common Sense Media. "Most chatbots have some safety gaps. What sets Grok apart is how the failures intersect: Kids Mode doesn't work, explicit material is pervasive, and everything can be instantly shared to millions of users on X. When a company responds to the enablement of illegal child sexual abuse material by putting the feature behind a paywall rather than removing it, that's not an oversight. That's a business model that puts profits ahead of kids' safety."

The risk assessment's findings include:

• Grok does not effectively identify teens, which makes it impossible to protect them from adult material. This means that teens can easily access the full adult experience, including companions designed for erotic roleplay, modes that change Grok's behavior like "Conspiracy Mode," dangerous image generation, and other features inappropriate for minors.
• Grok produces a range of harmful and dangerous material even with "Kids Mode" enabled. This includes biased responses, use of sexually violent language, detailed explanations of dangerous ideas, and inappropriate responses to "edgy" or offensive inputs.
• Grok has enabled widespread creation and distribution of nonconsensual deepfakes of kids and teens. Since summer 2025, the @grok account on X has been used to generate sexually explicit deepfakes of real people, including illegal child sexual abuse material, without consent.
• Grok's handling of mental health topics is dangerous and can reinforce harmful thinking. Grok does not appropriately respond to signs of serious mental conditions and builds on user delusions without prompting.
• Companion features include explicit erotic roleplay with game-like mechanics. Grok offers companion characters that engage in uncensored erotic roleplay and "relationships" with teen users.
• Grok works within X as its own account, allowing AI-generated material to be shared publicly and go viral. Interactions with the @grok account on X can be public for all on the platform to see, allowing inappropriate material to reach millions of users instantly.

Common Sense Media's testing examined Grok across three access points—the mobile app, the website, and the @grok account on X—using test accounts representing teen users. The testing evaluated different modes, including default, Kids Mode, and Conspiracy Mode, image and video generation, and companion features, all of which demonstrated unacceptable risks for users under 18.

The full risk assessment can be found here.

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