UK schools urged to remove pupil photos as AI blackmail attempts grow

TL;DR:

• The Internet Watch Foundation, the National Crime Agency and a UK advisory body called the early warning working group are recommending schools remove identifiable photos of pupils from websites and social media after a UK secondary school was subjected to AI-enabled extortion last year.
• The IWF said 150 of the AI-manipulated images from that single incident could be classified as child sexual abuse material under UK law; safeguarding minister Jess Phillips called it a “deeply worrying emerging threat”.
• Resultsense view: this is the first concrete UK case study of AI-generated CSAM being used against a school — and the first formal sector guidance asking schools to rethink the basic practice of publishing pupil photos. The fact that the secondary-school incident used negotiation scripts associated with overseas sextortion gangs raises this from emerging-threat to active-targeting.

The Confederation of School Trusts, whose academies educate over four million children in England, said schools would “carefully consider” the new guidance. The unnamed UK secondary school targeted last year is not the only incident; the IWF says it is aware of further attempts against UK schools using photos taken from school websites or social media accounts.

What the guidance says

The early warning working group — whose members include the NSPCC, IWF, Welsh government, Education Scotland, the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland and the NCA — recommends schools avoid publishing face-on identifiable images, replace them with distance shots, blurred images or back-of-head portraits, and consider whether pupil photos are needed at all. Names should not be paired with images, privacy settings should restrict viewing, and schools should run regular audits of pupil images and re-secure consent agreements.

If an incident happens, schools should contact police immediately, retain criminal images for investigation and remove the originals from view. The IWF can hash images so leading platforms block their upload — the mechanism it used after the secondary-school incident.

UK context

The Loughborough Schools Foundation redesigned its website last year to remove recognisable images of pupils after the AI-enabled threat became visible. The Report Remove service for under-18s received 394 reports of blackmail attempts last year, 34% more than in 2024. Sextortion has been linked to several teenage suicides in Britain, with the NCA pointing to West Africa and Nigeria as common origins for the criminal gangs involved.

Looking forward

Phillips signalled that legislation on AI-generated explicit images will be updated if necessary, building on the recently announced ban on possessing AI models designed to generate CSAM. UK schools and trusts now face a practical safeguarding decision with no simple answer — celebrating pupil achievements has historically meant publishing their photos, and the alternative model the EWWG proposes will require board-level conversations across the sector. Expect academy chains and local authorities to issue follow-on policies in the coming weeks.