British schools should remove students’ online photos as the threat of AI blackmail grows, experts say

British schools should remove images of students’ faces from their websites and social media accounts because blackmailers are using them to create sexually explicit images, experts say.

Child safety experts and the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) warn that criminals are using AI to manipulate photos of children and then demand money not to publish them.

They recommend educational institutions remove identifiable images of children from their websites and social media accounts – or consider not using them at all.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said an unnamed secondary school in the UK recently fell victim to an extortion attempt after criminals used the institution’s website or social media accounts to take photos of school children and then convert them into child sexual abuse material (CSAM) using AI tools. The blackmailers sent the pictures to the school and threatened to publish them online if they didn’t receive money.

The IMF, which monitors CSAM online,…