Incident Description

A Year 9 boy shared with friends that he was engaging with an AI “girlfriend” on a paid website. He was paying to see nude images of his ’AI’ girlfriend.

His friends then shared with school staff.

The platform was being used to sexually target children.

He had not shared any personal images of himself.

Staff and parents were concerned about his social withdrawal due to this ‘AI’ engagement.

Guidance for Safeguarding Response

• School contacted police and parents
• No further action from the police because he had not shared any images and was not being asked to do so
• School facilitated 1:1 sessions with the pupil around critically evaluating ‘appropriate’ online relationships and sources of information
• Information was recorded on school’s system (Category: Online safety outside of school)
• There had been no previous online safety concerns with this pupil

Additional actions which could be considered:

• Pol-ed sessions such as ‘What is the issue with nudes?’ and ‘What are sexual offences?’

Agencies Involved in this Incident

Reported to police. They investigated but it could not be proven that the pupil was being financially exploited as the language on the website suggested it was a membership fee being requested.

School commissioned their external safeguarding advisory service  to carry out 1:1 intensive support sessions