Crime and Policing Act 2026 – What does this mean for Schools?
The Crime and Policing Act (UK) received royal assent in April 2026 and, whilst now low, various aspects will be staggered on forthcoming dates to be determined by the government.
As you can imagine there are a number of new measures under the Act, including mandatory reporting and criminal offences so LGfL have put together a really good, simple brief for schools which I’m sure you will find a worthwhile read.
Link: What does the Crime and Policing Act 2026 mean for schools?
Preventing AI Image Abuse – Course Now Available
I mentioned this in last week’s newsletter, the full course package is now available.
You will be aware that the use of AI to manipulate images isn’t new, but an issue that is growing is the use of AI for image-based abuse. This includes pupils creating deepfakes of other pupils and one that is starting to emerge – individuals and organised crime groups harvesting images from the school website in order to blackmail the school.
A couple of weeks ago the UKCIS Online Harms Early Warning Working Group released new guidance for school/college settings. To enhance this, Traci Gregory and I have been working on a whole school package which includes:
- A video for staff split into 2 parts – the first for all staff, the second for senior leaders, governors and trustees.
- A RACI chart and checklist for school leaders.
- A video for parents and two information sheets – one for primary age and one for secondary/college age.
- Three videos for pupils – one for KS2, one for KS3 and one for KS4/5.
- A set of 9 posters which can be printed in A4 and A3 sizes – 3 for primary and 6 for secondary/college.
Full details and costs can be found at the link below:
Link – Preventing AI Image Abuse for Schools
New Report – Supporting the Online Lives of Children with Additional Needs
Last week Internet Matters released a new, fantastic report. Quote children with additional needs experience the best and worst of online life. This briefing explores this and how schools, government, platforms and their parents can best support them unquote.
Some of the findings:
- Spend on average 26 hours online per week, 5 more than their peers.
- 92% play online games.
- 4 in 5 use AI chatbots.
- Two thirds say bing online makes them happy
- 65% say being online is important to met people who become good friends.
- 4 out of 5 have experienced harm online.
Link: Internet Matters report – supporting the online lives of children with additional needs.
UK Government Announcement – Impossible for Children to Take/Share N*** Imagery
On Monday this week the Home Office announced that gib tech companies (e.g. Apple, Google) have been given 3 months to activate built-in safeguards on smartphones and tablets to detect and block n*** imagery. If they don’t act within 3 months the government will bring forward legislation which will include fines and possible criminal liability for tech bosses.
This is an interesting development and has also been an argument for a long time – that instead of individual apps/websites having to age verify it should (and can be) done at the device level.
Link: Britain to become first country in the world to make it impossible for children to take and share n*** images.
For Parents – WhatsApp for Under 13’s
With the exception of YouTube, WhatsApp has always been one of the most popular messaging apps, including for children under 13. This has always been a concern for a lot of different reasons, but out of the blue it seems that Meta have now created a parent-managed service which I think is really good.
Similar to other parent-managed accounts, a parent will pair their device/account to the child’s device/account which then gives a lot of flexibility such as:
- No ‘view once’ messages.
- No location sharing.
- Messages and group invites from unknown contacts sent to the parent for approval.
- Parent notifications, such as new contact added.
Link: WhatsApp parent-managed accounts – explained.
Link: How to set up a parent-managed account.
