UK schools blackmailed with sexualised AI deepfakes of pupils, experts warn - The Independent
Cyber criminals are blackmailing UK schools using AI deepfakes of pupils created from website photos, threatening to publish the images unless they receive money.
- Incident date
- May 2026
- Target
- pupils
In 2026, UK schools faced a disturbing wave of blackmail attempts involving sexually explicit AI deepfakes of pupils. Cyber criminals created these deepfakes using photos taken from school websites and threatened to publish them if their demands were not met.
What happened
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) reported that criminals were creating child sexual abuse material (CSAM) of real pupils using AI tools. They then used these images to extort money from the schools, threatening to release the images if payment was not received. The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) recommended that schools remove identifiable pictures of children from their websites and social media accounts. Some schools have begun blurring pupils' faces in online photos as a precaution. A new safeguarding tool was also unveiled that uses AI to make pupils in school photographs unidentifiable when posted online, replacing each face with an AI-generated one that matches the original's lighting, skin tone, and context.