We Need to Talk: AI, Online Safety and Young People

From today, TECgirls social media and website might look a little different.

Earlier this week, our team sat down to talk about the growing risks surrounding generative AI and the increasing ability for harmful content to be created from publicly available images of young people.

We want to be very clear from the start: TECgirls has not experienced any threats, incidents or issues related to the images we’ve shared online. Every photo we use is taken with parental consent, and we deeply respect young people’s right to privacy and safety online.

But as a non-profit organisation working with children and young people, particularly girls, we share a lot of photography from our events and programmes. We also spend a huge amount of time teaching young people, schools and educators about cyber security, online harms and digital safety. Because of that, we feel a responsibility to stay informed and proactive when new risks emerge.

Recently, we came across a now widely shared post from Dr Katherine Knibbs discussing how schools and youth organisations are being targeted by bad actors using publicly available images from websites and social media to create harmful AI-generated content.

At first, we questioned whether this was an isolated issue or whether the risks were being amplified online. So we did what we always encourage young people to do, we researched it properly.

The more we looked into it, the more concerning the situation became. Reports revealed that one UK secondary school had received more than 150 indecent AI-generated images created using photographs taken from the school’s website and social media channels.

It would be easy to dismiss this as a one-off incident or assume the media is exaggerating the risks. But the reality is that this issue has been building for years. Cases involving AI-generated abuse imagery and online exploitation are becoming more common, and safeguarding guidance is now evolving rapidly in response.

Importantly, recent reporting has followed updated advice released by the UK Online Harms Early Warning Working Group (EWWG) on the 8th of May, which encouraged schools and youth organisations to review how they share images of children and young people online.

After reviewing the guidance and having a lot of internal conversations, we’ve decided to take proactive action.

From today, we will begin reducing and removing images where girls’ faces are clearly visible across our social media and online platforms. Where possible, we’ll use alternative photography styles such as images taken from behind, wider group shots or imagery that doesn’t clearly identify young people.

Alongside this, we’re launching a new campaign calling for technology companies and the UK Government to do more to #MakeTechSafe for everyone.

You can read more about that campaign here: [INSERT LINK]

This decision has honestly been a difficult one for us. We love sharing photos from our events. We love celebrating the joy, confidence and excitement young people experience when they discover engineering, technology and space for the first time. Those moments matter deeply to us. But keeping young people safe matters more.

As an organisation built around empowering girls through technology, we also have to be honest about the risks technology can create when safety and accountability don’t keep pace with innovation.

We are still learning and adapting as this landscape changes, and we won’t pretend to have all the answers. But for now, we are following the current EWWG guidance, including:

• Avoiding clear, front-facing photographs of young people where possible

• Limiting identifying information linked to images

• Using alternative photography styles such as images from behind, blurred imagery or wider shots

• Reducing the use of images featuring young people online where appropriate

  
  

Most importantly, if the worst does happen, support is available. If you discover harmful or AI-generated content involving a child or young person, it is important not to panic and to report it immediately.

Helpful reporting resources include:

• For reporting child sexual abuse imagery: Report online child sexual abuse imagery or 'child pornography' 

• For reporting harmful online content: Report Harmful Content - We Help You Remove Content 

• For young people under 18 to anonymously report and remove content: Report Remove | Childline 

  
  

We are incredibly sad that this is the reality organisations, schools and families are now having to navigate.

This post is not about fearmongering or overreacting. It’s about recognising that technology is changing quickly, and safeguarding needs to change with it.

We believe organisations working with young people should lead by example, have honest conversations about online safety, and take proactive steps when new risks emerge.

That’s what we’re trying to do.