COMPUTING & IT RESOURCES
Why schools need to rethink safeguarding and cybersecurity in the age of AI
G
abi Walshaw, VP of Early Detection and
Intervention at Smoothwall, shares her insights – and explains that technology decisions must not sit with school IT teams alone. Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way children experience the internet, and it is changing the risks schools need to manage. As online threats become more diverse, sophisticated and personalised, schools need to move beyond simply blocking harmful content. They need systems that help them spot context, patterns and safeguarding concerns earlier, so staff can respond before isolated incidents become more serious.
For schools, the internet was once relatively predictable. Websites could be categorised, inappropriate content blocked and policies put in place to manage the risks pupils faced online. That world has changed. Children are now using digital tools at a younger age, and with greater confidence. Generative AI has added another layer of complexity by making it easier for pupils to create, search for and interact with text, images and online content in a matter of seconds.
The same technology is also being used to create more sophisticated disinformation, harmful content and cyber threats. This leaves young people exposed to risks they may not recognise, while schools are trying to manage threats that are faster-moving, harder to categorise and
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www.education-today.co.uk more difficult to contain.
At Smoothwall, we work with one in three UK schools on digital safeguarding and online safety, giving us a clear view of how pupil behaviour, online risks and safeguarding concerns are changing in real time.
Smoothwall monitoring data shows online bullying incidents have nearly doubled over the past two years, rising to around 33,000 instances per month. Incidents involving offensive language have also doubled, from around 25,000 per month to 51,000. Schools will always see pupils test boundaries around acceptable behaviour and language. However, Smoothwall data points to a marked increase in extreme and extremist language that would have been far less visible in classrooms a decade ago. Use of racist slurs is now recorded around 1,500 times each month.
New terms that teachers and parents may not yet recognise are also emerging, suggesting that harmful online subcultures are becoming more visible in school environments. For example, ‘black pill’, a term associated with incel communities, is being searched alongside trends such as ‘looksmaxxing’, which are already familiar to many schools. In short, some of the content children encounter online is becoming more extreme, more violent and more harmful. Schools are then seeing the effects of that exposure in pupil behaviour, language and safeguarding concerns, often before staff have had time to understand the latest trend or terminology.
The Department for Education has recognised this shift through its filtering and monitoring standards, which ask schools to consider whether their systems can manage real-time, dynamic, personalised and AI-generated content. The guidance also makes clear that schools should review and update their approach regularly, with senior leaders retaining oversight.
These changes are welcome because, as the risks evolve, so must the way schools manage them.
Filtering remains an essential first line of defence. Schools need to October 2026
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