X investigated under Ireland’s Online Safety Code for children’s access to pornography and extreme violence

Elon Musk’s social media platform is the subject of Ireland’s first Online Safety Code investigation by Coimisiún na Meán

Coimisiún na Meán has opened an Online Safety Code investigation into X for “potential ineffective” age protections on X against kids seeing adult content such as pornography and extreme violence.

It’s the regulator’s first official probe under the Online Safety Code, which came into effect in July 2025.

Coimisiún na Meán will also investigate “hard to locate” parental controls on X, saying such controls “may not be effective’.

The move comes after data from CyberSafeKids last week showed the same number of Irish children with accounts on over-13s social media services as last year, despite the Online Safety Code’s rules against minors accessing adult content being in place in Ireland.

Unlike other social media platforms, X allows pornography and extreme violence content. The regulator said that it will investigate whether the Elon Musk-owned service has any effective age verification methods, other than self-declaration, to make sure children cannot access such content.

While the number using TikTok and Meta apps is roughly equal between Irish boys and girls, more than twice as many young teenage boys (18pc) have an X account as girls (7pc), according to the CyberSafeKids report survey of over 7,000 children between the ages of 8 and 15.

Coimisiún na Meán can impose a fine of up to 10pc of a platform’s annual turnover, or €20 million, whichever is the higher figure.

“Platforms which are accessible to children and allow adult-only video content, such as pornography or extreme and gratuitous violence or acts of cruelty, must ensure that this content cannot normally be accessed by children by implementing effective age assurance measures,” said John Evans, digital services commissioner at Coimisiún na Meán.

“We have been clear that any age assurance measure based solely on self-declaration, is not sufficient. Platforms which allow users under the age of 16 must have parental controls which are under the control of parents and guardians, they must ensure that these parental controls are effective and easy to locate and they must draw users attention to these parental controls at account sign-up stage, for any parent or guardian who wishes to use them. We understand the concerns that parents and guardians have about content their children may be seeing online and concerns of strangers seeing their children’s content.”

X has been contacted for comment.

According to the most recent CyberSafeKids survey, 70pc of kids aged between 8 and 12 have accounts on 13-plus social media apps.

One in four children says they have negative experiences online, while exposure to sexual content has risen from 10pc to 24pc over the last year, with a third of teens saying that it is social media platforms’ algorithms that push it towards them.

AI ‘nudification’ tools have also risen in prominence among children and teens, spurred by Grok on X, the CyberSafeKids survey showed.

Social media platforms still primarily rely on self-declaration when it comes to age. Methods of underage account detection, other than using AI, include assessing ‘friend’ account profiles, language, topics of interest and photos and videos posted.

If a platform suspects an underage account, it asks for proof of age, such as government photo identification, to proceed with ownership of the account.

However, the CyberSafeKids report says that children under-13 have little difficulty bypassing these controls.

Preventing children from accessing social media has proven to be a challenge, even in countries that have banned social media for under-16s. In July, the first report from Australia’s eSafety Commissioner after that country’s ban on social media for under-16s last December showed that the number of under-16s using social media has only fallen from 86pc to 82pc.

While this is the first investigation by Coimisiún na Meán under the Online Safety Code, the regulator has several other investigations open for other things.

It is already investigating X around the rights of users to appeal content moderation decisions. It is also probing TikTok and Linkedin about those platforms’ illegal content reporting mechanisms. And it is investigating both Facebook and Meta in relation to “dark patterns” and the ability of users to choose a recommender system not based on profiling.

Coimisiún na Meán also has several joint investigations with the European Commission, including one into TikTok’s suspected non-compliance related to the protection of minors.

A separate joint investigation with the European Commission is being conducted into X over suspected systemic risks in respect of its deployment of Grok.