Organisational use of Children’s Images: New Guidance Released

Education settings are being encouraged to review how they use and publish children’s images online following the release of new guidance from the UK Safer Internet Centre.

The new guidance, Image guidance for education settings, provides practical advice to help organisations assess and reduce safeguarding risks associated with sharing photographs and videos of children online.

While the guidance is non-statutory, it reflects an increasingly urgent safeguarding issue that all organisations working with children should consider.

The publication comes amid growing concern about the misuse of publicly available images, particularly as artificial intelligence tools make it easier to manipulate innocent photographs into exploitative or harmful content.

Recent reporting in The Guardian highlighted how some schools are reconsidering the publication of pupil images online following concerns over AI-generated abuse imagery, sextortion threats and the wider misuse of children’s photographs.

For safeguarding professionals, this represents a significant shift in digital risk.

Practices that may once have been seen as routine—celebration galleries, public event photos, promotional materials and social media content—now require more robust safeguarding scrutiny.

The UK Safer Internet Centre guidance encourages education settings to consider:

• whether publicly sharing children’s images remains necessary;
• how identifiable children may be through associated names, uniforms, locations or contextual details;
• whether secure alternatives, such as parent-only portals, are more appropriate;
• how consent is obtained, recorded and reviewed;
• whether staff understand the safeguarding implications of image sharing;
• how organisations would respond if images were misused.

Although the guidance is written for education settings, the safeguarding principles are relevant to any organisation working with children and young people.

Designated Safeguarding Leads, headteachers, governors, trustees and senior leaders may wish to review existing communications, marketing and safeguarding policies in light of the changing digital threat landscape.

This is not about creating unnecessary fear around photography or school communications. It is about recognising that the context in which children’s images are shared has changed significantly.

Good safeguarding practice requires organisations to assess risk in light of current threats—not historical assumptions.

The full guidance from the UK Safer Internet Centre can be accessed here:
https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/image-guidance-for-education-settings