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Your safeguarding duties apply to AI-assisted work exactly as they do to everything else. The policy makes the AI-specific risks explicit, and points every concern down the route staff already know, to your designated safeguarding lead.
What it is
The section that connects AI to your existing safeguarding framework: KCSIE’s four areas of online risk, the Prevent duty, and the Online Safety Act. It names the AI-specific behaviours that are prohibited and treats them as conduct matters, and, where relevant, as safeguarding matters.
Fabricated media and deepfakes. Creating or sharing fabricated media intended to mislead, harass, distress or harm anyone in the community is prohibited. Where such material is sexual it may be criminal, and AI-generated sexual imagery of a child is a criminal matter in every circumstance. It’s reported to the designated safeguarding lead, handled under the child protection policy, and referred to the police where required, in line with the Online Safety Act 2023 and the Ofcom Protection of Children code. Multi-agency action follows Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026.
Why it’s important
The tools to fabricate convincing images, audio and video are now widely available and simple to use. The schools that struggle most when this lands are the ones that never named the risk in their policy. Making the reporting route explicit, and the same one staff already use, means an AI-enabled incident is dealt with as quickly, and as seriously, as any other.
Guidance it speaks to
- Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 — the statutory safeguarding baseline from 1 September 2026.
- Online Safety Act 2023 and the Ofcom Protection of Children code of practice.
- Prevent duty guidance (2023) and Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026.
A non-negotiable
Your Prevent, safeguarding and online-safety duties are non-negotiable, and apply to AI exactly as they apply to everything else.