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CHILDREN ARE BEING bombarded online by so-called AI girlfriend porn apps, which are “grooming” boys to perpetrate sexual violence and girls to accept such behaviour.

Sexualised images of women and children generated by Grok AI continue to be shared on Elon Musk’s X – a trend that is reported to have gone viral over the new year period. The European Commission commented earlier this week that it was “very seriously” looking into complaints that Grok was being used to generate and disseminate explicit childlike images.

Meanwhile, Eoghan Cleary, researcher with the Sexual Exploitation and Policy Institute (SERP) at UCD, who is conducting research on the exposure of Irish children to pornography, said that these AI technologies were “supercharging” the already increasing violence in adult pornography.

“We regularly hear from 15- and 16- year old students that they have been targeted with advertisements for AI girlfriends and nudification apps on all of the spaces they go online, not just X- but TikTok, and Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube, TV and film streaming websites and platforms.”

This toxic and destructive online influence has now filtered down into schools and homes. Misogyny and harassment of female teachers in schools were raised repeatedly in 2025, by teaching unions and other stakeholders, as an issue across Ireland. Tackling this effectively means addressing children and young teens’ ability to access harmful content online — including pornography.

Rising societal misogyny is one more reason to challenge tech moguls and protect children from exposure to algorithm — driven social media.

Last May, an RTE Prime Time programme examined how online influencers who promote a negatively distorted form of masculinity may be shaping Irish teenagers’ views of the world. Several teachers stated they were personally subjected to behaviour they perceived to be linked to narratives and views promoted by influencers online and contained within pornography.

These views are reflected in research by the

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