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Sharing school imagery in the age of AI: risks, deepfakes, and how to protect students and staff

A photo from a school assembly. A teacher’s profile picture. Australian schools share student and staff photos online every day to connect families, build community and showcase school life. But AI-generated deepfakes and other forms of image misuse have changed the risk attached to such photos.

A staff headshot can become a fake video within minutes. A student photo can be altered or sexualised without consent. School identifiers can make fabricated content appear more realistic.

Once content is public, schools have little control over who copies it, where it is distributed or how it may be modified.

Before publishing, schools should consider the purpose, consent, audience and identifying details of such images.

In this advisory

Why publicly shared school photos can carry more risk

AI image and video tools are now widely available and easy to use. Some popular social media platforms are embedding generative AI features to make them even more accessible.

A person no longer needs advanced editing skills to place someone’s face into a video or fabricate a scene. Some tools can even remove clothing from an image or generate sexually explicit material from an ordinary photograph.

eSafety receives reports of digitally altered images, including sexualised deepfakes that appear to use publicly available photos as source material.

Source images may come from school websites or social media accounts. They may also come from school admin profiles, staff social media accounts, or photos and videos captured without consent.

Details around an image are important. A uniform can identify a school. A caption may name the student or staff member. Location tags, public timetables or event details can reveal where someone has been or is likely to be.

When a post reveals a child’s name, school, location, interests or routine, it may help someone track or target them.

An image may have been shared for a good reason. However, once public, other people can access and use it in ways the school, staff member or family never intended.

Posting fewer images of school students and personnel – or none at all – can reduce the risk. It cannot remove the risk completely because images may still be available from other public sources.

What eSafety is seeing

eSafety has seen a rise in reports involving school-related image misuse.

Last year, eSafety saw twice as many reports from under-18s about digitally altered intimate images – including deepfakes.

Between January and March 2026, eSafety received more than 100 reports about anonymous accounts targeting schools and school staff. Almost all involved imagery harvested from school social media accounts or websites. Many were made through the Adult Cyber Abuse Scheme, as the content was considered seriously harmful, even where it did not involve intimate imagery.

Much of the reported material appeared on TikTok and Instagram accounts. It included AI-generated dance videos and face swaps, as well as memes using staff photographs and fabricated stories about teachers, principals and other school staff.

Those running the accounts are often believed to be current or former students from the targeted school. People outside the school community may also misuse images.

Some accounts use a school name, nickname or logo to attract followers and appear legitimate.

Recent media reports in Australia described anonymous TikTok accounts using school staff headshots to create fake videos and teacher ratings. Many posts were open to comments and several accounts attracted hundreds of followers.

Even fake content can have a real impact on the person targeted. 

How the harm can spread beyond the post

Students and school staff may lose privacy, have their images shared without consent or have images manipulated in a way that may be defamatory or slanderous. Damage to their digital and real-life reputation may last longer but may not constitute a breach of the platforms’ terms of service.

In more serious cases, an ordinary photograph where a person appears fully clothed can be altered, or nudified, to create fake sexual material. Platform rules and Australia’s online safety laws are much more clear cut under these circumstances.

The effect can spread across the school and become a critical online incident. School leaders may need to support their staff and manage student behaviour while learning is disrupted.

While children are especially vulnerable, teachers and other school staff may face humiliation or reputational damage. Some may lose confidence at work. A fake video can keep circulating among students and the wider community after the original account has been reported.

Repeated sharing can make ridicule seem normal and damage relationships. It can also affect school culture and weaken expectations about how students treat staff and each other.

This increasingly viral form of harmful conduct is also being reported in other countries. Overseas media reports indicate criminals have taken student photos from school websites and used AI to create sexually explicit images for a school extortion attempt.

These are well-researched and planned forms of blackmail, demonstrating why public images may attract people with no connection to the school.

How to safely share school photos online

Schools should review how they collect, approve, post and store images.

A risk-based approach helps schools decide which images belong on public channels and which are better shared in a closed or restricted space.

Before posting, consider:

  • Purpose: What does the image add? Could the same story be told without showing identifiable details?
  • Consent: Is consent active, informed and current? Does it cover school social media posts?
  • Identification: Does the post include a name, uniform, location or routine that could be used to identify a specific person or their location?
  • Audience: Is the account public? Who can view, comment or reshare the content?
  • Alternatives: Are close-ups needed? Could the image be cropped or taken from a distance? Could names be left out?
  • Settings: Are privacy settings and controls for tags or comments reviewed regularly?
  • Governance: Who may post, approve and moderate content? How and where is consent recorded? What processes are in place to review older material?
  • Old material: Do archived pages or past posts still need to remain public?
  • Storage: Are original images stored securely and handled in line with school or sector policies for data retention and disposal?

Schools should make it easy for students and their families to raise concerns about the use of student images and explain what will happen next.

Schools or school sectors can set common expectations and share practical guidance, reducing the need for each school to build its response from scratch.

Set expectations before an incident

Students need clear guidance about AI-edited content, including deepfakes, and digital consent. Experience has shown young people often do not fully grasp the enduring harm such material can inflict on classmates or school officials until after the damage is done.

This applies regardless of whether the material is sexualised. Using a person’s image to impersonate, mock or humiliate them can cause real harm. Viewing, liking, commenting or forwarding the material may increase its reach and contribute to further harm.

Schools can use a whole-school approach to online safety education

This can bring together digital literacy lessons with social and emotional learning. Consent and respectful relationships education can reinforce the same messages.

Starting early with online safety education helps students make better choices and may require continued reinforcement over time.

Schools should update their student behaviour and acceptable use policies to cover AI-manipulated content and the posting of images. Their critical online incident plans should also cover the misuse of student and staff images, including the possibility that a deepfake linked to the school could go viral. The Prepare advice in eSafety’s Toolkit for Schools can help.

Conversations should focus on the impact on the person and reinforce the school’s expectations. They should also explain potential consequences. Students need to understand that altering someone’s image is not a harmless joke. In some jurisdictions, it can result in criminal charges.

Understanding eSafety’s role and ways to report misuse

Staff, students and families can report online harm to eSafety. However, school communities should be aware that not all harmful material can be addressed under the Online Safety Act, especially material that targets adults.

This is one of the reasons it is so important to carefully assess the risks when posting imagery online – imagery that may later be digitally altered without consent.

eSafety can act where content meets the legal threshold for cyberbullying of children, serious adult cyber abuse, image-based abuse (sharing or threatened sharing of intimate images or videos) or illegal and restricted content.

However, the law treats intimate and non-intimate content differently.

Under the Online Safety Act, image-based abuse is sharing, or threatening to share, an intimate image without consent. It includes fake or altered nude and sexual images or videos.

eSafety can issue a legally enforceable notice to remove this material and we have a high success rate, regardless of the age of the person targeted.

A non-sexual deepfake, such as a face swap, fake dance video or harmful meme, may still cause deep distress. But this content may fall outside the legal criteria for child cyberbullying, image-based abuse or adult cyber abuse because the threshold for adults is higher than for children.

Such material may cause real harm but eSafety may be unable to seek its removal under the law.

In these cases, schools may need other pathways, including student behaviour processes, staff support, police referral where safety concerns arise, or legal advice.

It is also important to remember eSafety cannot remove an account simply because it is anonymous or believed to belong to someone under 16. Social media minimum age obligations apply to platforms.

What schools should do when an image is misused

Schools need a response plan for harmful content that appears online.

1. Collect evidence

Collect evidence before reporting or blocking an account, where it is safe to do so. Never save, share or redistribute nude or sexual images or videos of anyone under 18.

Useful evidence may include:

  • screenshots or screen recordings
  • the account name and handle
  • the platform and URL
  • dates and times
  • captions, comments and direct messages
  • any response from the platform.

Keep access to the evidence limited. Broad internal sharing can expose the affected person to the material again and increase the risk of further circulation.

2. Report harmful content

In many cases, it’s best to report the content or account first to the service where it appears.

The eSafety Guide has reporting links and safety information for commonly used platforms.

You can also report online harms to eSafety.

3. Communicate with families carefully

Schools may need to tell parents and carers about an incident, particularly where students are affected or may be involved.

Explain the situation in broad terms and set out what the school is doing. 

Ask families not to spread the material and provide a clear contact point for questions.

Avoid sharing the harmful content or any details that make it easier to find. School sectors can give principals clear guidance and shared language.

4. Plan for content to reappear

A platform may decline to remove content because it does not breach its rules, especially if it is not sexual. A post may also be republished through screenshots, reposts or a new account.

Keep affected people informed, record new material and reassess the response if the content recirculates or resurfaces.  

If the school community is already aware of the issue, consider reinforcing the message that sharing the content may further perpetuate the harm.

How to support affected staff and students

A person targeted by fake or humiliating content may feel exposed and powerless.

Schools should explain how they are responding and provide practical help. Affected staff and students may need privacy protection or less exposure to the material. Staff may also benefit from an employee assistance program.

Treat staff-targeted abuse as a wellbeing and workplace issue within the school response.

Students affected by image misuse need support suited to their age and circumstances. Schools should involve parents or carers where appropriate and avoid actions that increase shame or draw more attention to the content.

How parents and carers can help build a safer school culture

The way families share school-related photos and videos can protect children’s privacy and set a clear example of respectful online behaviour.

Ask for consent before posting an image that includes another child. Leave out details that identify their school or location, including information about regular activities.

Talk with children about consent and respectful online behaviour. Help them understand that creating or sharing fake content can affect the person targeted.

If harmful material appears, use the school’s reporting process and follow its advice. Sharing information only with people who need it can help contain the material and protect those affected.

Thoughtful choices by parents and carers can reduce the spread of harmful content and reinforce respectful behaviour across the school community.

Where to get help

eSafety’s Toolkit for Schools includes resources to help schools prepare for and respond to online safety incidents.

Useful resources include:

A school photo can still celebrate a moment and bring a community together. The decision to post it now deserves more care.

Taking a deliberate and informed approach before sharing can help protect the people in the image and prepare schools to respond if something goes wrong.