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The start of 2026 has brought with it a grim reminder of ever-evolving online threats. Recent weeks have seen the rapid growth of a vile new practice – the generation of non-consensual, sexualised images of women and girls by Elon Musk’s AI tool, Grok.

This technology – and the people behind it – have enabled the proliferation of degrading images of real women, whose photos have been undressed and distorted via user queries to an AI chatbot. Individuals have been empowered by this technology to humiliate, shame and intimidate women. More disturbing yet, children have been sexualised by the bot, as Grok has altered their pose and clothing to create thousands of explicit images, many of which meet a legal threshold for child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

This is far from an isolated trend. The harrowing reality is that CSAM online is a growing problem. NSPCC data shows a 93% increase in cases in the last five years, while the Internet Watch Foundation found a record high level of CSAM online last year. As AI tools become ever smarter, we can only expect the problem of explicit deepfake images of real children to grow.

The consequences of this aren’t limited to the online world. CSAM online increases demand for........

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