What the Online Safety Act means for school safeguarding policies

The Online Safety Act means schools must now update their safeguarding policies to protect children from new digital threats like artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and harmful algorithms. For teachers and parents, it provides a welcome framework to hold tech companies accountable while offering clear guidelines on how to keep children safe online.

Beyond the legal terminology, this new legislation is a helpful reminder that the digital playground has changed significantly. We are seeing a major shift in how children interact with the internet on a daily basis. They are no longer just browsing static websites. They are chatting with artificial intelligence, viewing heavily edited videos that look perfectly real, and facing clever scams designed specifically to trick young minds.

For a long time, educators and families have felt they were playing a difficult game of catch up with technology. The Act changes the landscape by placing more responsibility on the platforms themselves to monitor and remove illegal or harmful material. However, it also means our school safeguarding policies need a gentle but firm refresh to reflect the realities of modern online deception. We need to ensure that the adults protecting children have the right vocabulary and procedures to handle these modern challenges confidently.

Moving from screen time to screen sense

Historically, school policies and parenting rules focused heavily on restricting access. We worried about how many hours a child spent on a device or which specific websites they visited during the school day. While managing screen time certainly still matters, the Online Safety Act encourages us to look much closer at the actual content children consume. A child might only be on a tablet for twenty minutes after school, but in that short window, they could easily encounter a highly convincing voice cloning scam on a gaming platform or a deepfake video of a celebrity giving dangerous advice. Our safeguarding approach must evolve from simply building digital walls to teaching children how to evaluate what they see.

For a primary or secondary school, this means reviewing your current acceptable use policies and safeguarding documents. You should check if your paperwork explicitly mentions artificial intelligence, manipulated media, and synthetic content. You do not need a degree in computer science to do this effectively. A simple addition to the policy that addresses “content created or altered by artificial intelligence” gives your staff a clear mandate to discuss these topics in class. It also signals to parents that the school is fully aware of these modern challenges and is taking proactive steps to address them calmly.

Parents can mirror this shift in focus at home. Instead of just setting a timer for tablet use, sit with your child and ask them questions about the videos they are watching. Ask them how they know a particular video or image is real. When schools and families share the exact same language about online safety, children feel far more supported. They learn that questioning a strange message or a bizarre video is not about getting into trouble, but about being a smart digital detective.

Tackling deepfakes and manipulated media in the classroom

One of the most significant areas highlighted by recent conversations around the Online Safety Act is the rapid rise of deepfakes. These are videos or audio clips manipulated by artificial intelligence to make it look or sound like someone is saying or doing something they never actually did. For children, especially those navigating Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3, this can be incredibly confusing and upsetting. They might see a video of a favourite footballer endorsing a scam product, or worse, encounter manipulated images of people they actually know. School safeguarding policies now need to provide teachers with the tools to handle reports of fake media with total confidence.

If a pupil reports a distressing video, the first step is always to reassure them that they did exactly the right thing by speaking up. Teachers should be guided by their policy to validate the child’s feelings immediately. It can be very frightening to see a trusted figure saying something alarming on a screen. You can calmly explain that just as photographs can be edited to change backgrounds or lighting, videos and voices can now be changed using advanced computer software. Use a simple analogy they already understand. You might say it is like wearing a highly realistic digital mask or playing a very advanced trick on the camera.

School leaders should also ensure their safeguarding leads are familiar with the reporting mechanisms on major social media platforms. Under the new legislation, tech companies have a duty to remove illegal content and protect children from harmful material. Knowing how to flag a deepfake or a synthetic media scam directly to the platform is a vital skill for staff. Parents should be informed of these reporting steps through the school newsletter, creating a united front that protects the whole school community and ensures harmful content is taken down quickly.

Helping children spot phishing and voice cloning scams

Phishing used to mean poorly spelled emails asking for bank details. Today, artificial intelligence has made these scams highly sophisticated, and they are increasingly targeted at much younger users through online games and direct messages. A child might receive a message that looks exactly like it came from a classmate, asking them to click a link to claim free in game currency. Alternatively, they might hear a voice note that sounds identical to a family member asking for urgent help. The Online Safety Act stresses the need for protection against fraud, and schools must incorporate this into their digital literacy lessons.

Your updated safeguarding policy should outline how staff can teach children to pause before they react to anything online. The concept of a digital pause is incredibly powerful and easy to teach. Teach children that if a message creates a sense of sudden panic, fear, or urgent excitement, that emotion is a massive clue to stop and think. If a supposed friend is asking for a password or money in a multiplayer game, children should be encouraged to verify it by asking the friend in person the next day at school before doing anything else.

At home, parents can establish a family safe word. This is a brilliant, highly practical tool to combat voice cloning scams. If a child receives a strange phone call or a voice note from someone claiming to be a parent in trouble, they can simply ask for the safe word. If the caller does not know it, the child knows instantly that it is a computer generated trick. Sharing these simple, actionable strategies between the classroom and the living room builds a protective net around the child, making the abstract concepts of the new legislation a lived, practical reality.

Empowering staff and parents to work together

Updating a safeguarding policy document is only the beginning of the journey. The real magic happens when the policy leaps off the page and informs daily conversations between adults and children. The Online Safety Act is designed to make the digital world safer at a structural level, but legislation alone cannot replace the watchful, caring eyes of parents and teachers. Schools should use this moment of legal change to open up an ongoing dialogue with families. Many parents feel totally overwhelmed by the pace of technological change and will deeply welcome guidance from their child’s school.

Consider hosting an informal coffee morning or a short evening session focused entirely on modern digital safety. You do not need to hire an external tech expert to run this event. The designated safeguarding lead can simply walk parents through the updated school policy, explaining what deepfakes are and how the school is teaching children to spot them. You can share a few harmless examples of AI generated images (like a cat riding a skateboard on the moon) to demonstrate how convincing the technology can be, before calmly discussing the more serious implications.

Communication between school and home should be regular and reassuring. Instead of sending out a terrifying warning every time a new online scam appears in the news, send out bite sized, practical tips in the weekly school newsletter. When parents and teachers remain calm and well informed, children pick up on that quiet confidence. They are much more likely to report something strange they saw online if they know the adults in their life will respond with practical help rather than panicking or immediately confiscating their phone.

Try this at home or in class

Whether you are a teacher looking to start a morning registration activity or a parent chatting at the kitchen table, here are three simple steps you can take today to build those vital critical thinking skills.

1. Play “Spot the glitch”: Look at an AI generated image together and turn it into a fun observation game. Ask the child to look for small mistakes. Do the people in the background have too many fingers? Is the writing on the shop signs completely unreadable? Do the shadows match the direction of the sun? This makes critical analysis fun rather than scary.
2. Practice the “five minute wait”: Agree on a firm rule that if a message or video makes them feel suddenly angry, scared, or overly excited, they must wait five minutes before sharing it, clicking a link, or replying. This completely breaks the emotional reaction cycle that most online scams rely on.
3. Set up a reporting safe space: Make it explicitly clear that a child will never lose their device or their gaming privileges if they come to you to report a strange message or a scary video. Fear of losing screen access is the number one reason children hide online problems from adults.

Navigating the rules of the Online Safety Act and updating safeguarding policies can feel like a heavy administrative task. However, teaching these vital concepts to children does not have to be dry, technical, or frightening. At Safety Spotters, we believe the best way to equip children with the skills they need to spot AI enabled deception is through highly engaging stories. Our books turn these essential digital lessons into exciting adventures that children aged 5 to 14 actually remember, helping them become confident digital detectives for life. You can find more resources and claim a free copy for parents and teachers at safetyspotters.com/free.

Frequently asked questions

Do schools need to rewrite their entire safeguarding policy because of the Online Safety Act? No, a complete rewrite is rarely necessary. You simply need to review and update your current policy to explicitly include references to artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and synthetic media, ensuring all staff know exactly how to handle reports of these specific issues.

How do I explain deepfakes to a primary school child without frightening them? Keep it very simple and relate it to things they already know. You can explain that just as we use fun filters to give ourselves animal ears in photos, people can use powerful computers to change faces and voices in videos. Remind them gently that seeing is no longer always believing.

Will the Online Safety Act stop children from seeing harmful AI content entirely? While the new law places strict legal duties on tech companies to remove illegal and harmful content, no filtering system is perfect. Some deceptive content will still slip through the cracks, which is why teaching children critical thinking and reporting skills remains absolutely essential.

What is the best way to handle a situation where a child has fallen for an online scam? Respond with total empathy and zero judgment. Reassure the child that scammers use very clever tricks and that even smart adults fall for them every day. Focus on the positive step they took by telling you, then follow your school or family procedures to report the account and block the user.