X-rated: X recommends explicit content to 13-year-olds

For this 21-page report, CCDH UK created test accounts configured to appear as 13-year-old users and used them to probe X's search and recommendation systems, as well as its direct-messaging settings, for exposure to sexual content and contact from strangers.

The testing found that searches for common explicit terms returned sexual content in roughly eight out of ten cases, and that X's "For You" algorithmic feed surfaced explicit posts in about 30% of recommended content shown to the simulated teen accounts. Researchers also found that default or easily adjustable messaging settings allowed unconnected adult accounts to send explicit material directly to accounts presented as belonging to minors.

The report concludes that these findings point to systemic gaps in X's child-safety mechanisms nearly a year after enforcement began under the UK's Online Safety Act, and frames the exposure pathways identified — search, algorithmic recommendation, and direct messaging — as compounding risks for both pornography exposure and potential grooming.