Parents Told to Stop Posting Children’s Photos Online
The National Crime Agency issued landmark guidance asking parents and carers not to post images of their children publicly online and to switch social media accounts to private, in response to a surge in AI-generated child sexual abuse material. It is the first national guidance of its kind, drawn up with the child-safety watchdog, and reflects investigators’ assessment that ordinary family photographs are now source material for abuse imagery.
The guidance formalises a shift in official thinking: the risk is no longer only who sees a photograph, but what generative tools can do with it — and once an image is public, that risk cannot be recalled. It puts fresh pressure on the platforms, whose default settings and recommendation systems determine how far a child’s image travels, and it will feed the argument over whether the Online Safety Act’s enforcement powers match AI-era harms. The advice is deliberately practical rather than punitive. Watch how schools and platforms respond, and whether ministers attach regulation to what is currently guidance.