This episode of “Safeguarding in Focus,” hosted by Sam Eustace, features Lucie Welch, an expert in primary education and safeguarding from Services for Education. The discussion centers on how AI is transforming the safeguarding landscape in schools, exploring both the risks and opportunities presented by this rapidly evolving technology.

Key takeaways:

• Schools must address new safeguarding threats, including AI-generated explicit images, deepfakes, harmful algorithm-driven content, and unregulated AI companion chatbots.
• Effective AI safeguarding requires collaboration across IT teams, safeguarding leads, curriculum leaders, and senior leadership—not a single department.
• Rather than banning AI outright, schools should teach students AI literacy, critical thinking, and ethical use to prepare them for a technology-driven world.

The podcast concludes by stressing the importance of continuous staff training on digital indicators of harm, engaging parents and carers who may have less awareness of AI risks, and establishing forward-looking systems that can adapt to the rapidly evolving role of AI in children’s lives. Schools must view AI as a tool to support, not to replace, human judgment, empathy, and professional curiosity in safeguarding.