Sharing Nudes, Sextortion and Deepfakes: What Schools Need to Know in 2026

Last week I came across one of my old lesson plans on online safety. It was from around 2010. I opened it up and went through it, just to see if there was anything useful I could use in an upcoming session. It was quite shocking to see how tame it was and how tunnel-visioned (if I can say that!). It was mostly about the dangers of grooming — which is obviously still important and still very much part of what we teach. But going through it, I was struck by how quaint my approach seemed, compared to what young people are dealing with now.

Nudification apps and AI-generated imagery

A normal, clothed photograph can now be used to generate a realistic sexual image of someone. The Children’s Commissioner’s April 2025 report describes children’s concerns about nudification tools. A pupil does not have to have taken or shared a nude for this to happen to them.

The harm to the person depicted matters even when the image is fake. Calling it a joke does nothing to address what has been done to them.

UKCIS’s March 2024 advice explains that the law on indecent images of children includes realistic computer-generated images. Indecency is a legal assessment; nudity alone does not settle it (section 1.7).

For an under-18 whose image has been shared, Report Remove is run by Childline and the Internet Watch Foundation. It accepts manipulated or AI-generated images that could depict them. The IWF assesses the image; the service cannot remove copies from someone’s phone or encrypted networks. Explain what help is available without promising that every copy will disappear.

Sextortion

The National Crime Agency’s advice describes financial blackmail using sexual images as usually involving organised criminal gangs, often overseas. Anyone can be targeted; teenage boys aged 14–17 are among those it identifies as particularly at risk. Make sure boys can recognise themselves in your examples and know the support is for them too. UKCIS also describes young people blackmailing peers (section 1.6), so the reporting advice cannot depend on assuming the offender is an adult stranger.

The NCA advises stopping contact and blocking the offender. Paying does not guarantee that threats will stop, and further demands may follow; if a pupil has paid, the advice is not to pay more. Under-18s should tell a trusted adult, who can help them report to the police on 101, or 999 if there is immediate risk. A child without a trusted adult can report to the CEOP Safety Centre.

I would teach those routes before a pupil needs them. Let them know what approaching someone at school would involve, rather than ending a lesson with a list of organisations.

When a pupil asks for help

Refer disclosures immediately to the DSL. Explain who needs to know and why, and keep the pupil informed. Don’t promise secrecy or ask to see the image. The UKCIS overview for frontline staff sets out the response.

The NCA advises preserving potential evidence. In school, follow the DSL’s directions on devices and deletion under UKCIS section 2.10, including any police involvement. Don’t ask pupils to forward images, or copy or save them yourself.

A frightened pupil needs to hear what you will do next. You can take what they tell you seriously and help them through the reporting process without asking them to prove it by showing you a picture.

Teaching the law without closing down help

The secondary online-safety content in the July 2025 RSHE guidance, now applying in England links teaching about the law on under-18 sexual imagery, including AI imagery, with reassurance about seeking help. Where an image of themselves has been shared, pupils should hear that they “will not be in trouble for asking for help”, at school or with the police. Keep that scope clear: it is reassurance about seeking help, not a promise that any conduct involving an image has no consequences.

Before reassuring parents about Outcome 21, read UKCIS section 1.9. It records a police decision that further investigation towards formal action is not in the public interest, subject to the code’s conditions. A recorded incident does not automatically mean a criminal record. Information can still be disclosed on an enhanced DBS certificate if a chief officer reasonably believes it relevant to the disclosure’s purpose and considers that it ought to be included.

Reviewing your programme

The same secondary guidance page addresses deepfakes, their harmful and other uses, and recognising them. Review where this fits into your teaching about image sharing and consent, including what a pupil can do if someone else’s image arrives in a group chat. Plan the help-seeking explanation alongside the activity.

Schools “must have regard to the guidance” and need good reasons for departing from its recommendations (paragraph 5). Our step-by-step RSE review covers checking your own teaching against it. For primary pupils, UKCIS section 3.2 describes teaching the basic principles of consensual image sharing without discussing nudes or semi-nudes specifically.

If your team needs support with these lessons or the questions they raise, talk to us about RSE training.

Trusted resources

• UKCIS advice for education settings, updated 11 March 2024: incident handling, the law and police responses.
• NCA advice on financially motivated sexual extortion, including the under-18 reporting route.
• Report Remove, from Childline and the IWF.
• Take It Down, from NCMEC, for images taken when someone was under 18. It works with participating platforms; do not download an image to use it.
• Childline support, online or free on 0800 1111.
• IWF reporting, for suspected online child sexual abuse imagery, including AI-generated images.