There's been a significant rise in schools asking for help about the risk of pupil photographs being misused online. As a provider that supports education settings — and with safeguarding at the heart of what we do — we want to share clear, practical guidance rather than alarm.

What's happening

As reported by Schools Week, legal advisers to over 1,300 UK schools say they have been inundated with questions after the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) reported an attempted blackmail of a UK secondary school. Criminals took ordinary images from the school's online presence, manipulated them using AI tools, and demanded payment under threat of publishing them. The IWF created digital "fingerprints" of the material so technology platforms can detect and block it, and has made clear the incident was not isolated.

In response, the UK Online Harms Early Warning Working Group — which includes the IWF, the National Crime Agency, the NSPCC and Childnet — has updated its image-security guidance for schools. New legislation (the Crime and Policing Act 2026) also moves to ban AI tools designed to create this kind of abuse material.

Practical steps for image security

The official guidance is sensible and achievable. In short:

  • Question what you publish. Do identifiable, close-up photos of pupils need to be on a public website or social media at all?
  • Reduce identifiability. Favour images taken at a distance, from behind, or in group shots; avoid full names in captions.
  • Audit what's already online, including older galleries, newsletters and social posts.
  • Review consent with parents, and make opt-out genuinely easy.
  • Tighten access to where original, high-resolution images are stored.

If your school is ever targeted

The advice from child-protection experts is clear: do not pay, contact the police immediately, and preserve evidence rather than deleting everything straight away. The IWF and Childline's Report Remove service helps under-18s get explicit images of themselves taken down, and the IWF can act to block known material across platforms. Make sure staff know who your Designated Safeguarding Lead is and how to escalate quickly.

How we help

We work with schools across Greater Manchester on exactly this kind of challenge — auditing and securing websites and image stores, locking down access, and building safeguarding and incident-response steps into IT. If you'd like a hand reviewing your setup, get in touch.

Source: More schools fear blackmail over pupil images posted online — Schools Week