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Schools and teachers should be careful when deciding to post photos or videos of students online. This article provides practical guidance on how to reduce risk and respond in the case of a critical online incident.

Why publicly shared school and student photos carry more risk

With the increasing availability of AI-tools, publicly available photos posted by schools can now be used as source material for digitally altered images or sexualised deepfakes.

What can schools do to reduce risk?

Schools must be cautious when deciding to post photos or videos of their students or staff online. Fewer images of students and staff online means fewer risks, and schools should only post where these risks can be suitably mitigated.

The eSafety Commissioner has provided guidance on how schools can safely share photos online (which can be found here: Sharing school imagery in the age of AI: risks, deepfakes, and how to protect students and staff | eSafety Commissioner). eSafety recommends that before posting, a risk-based approach should be undertaken, taking the following factors into consideration:

• Understand the purpose of sharing.
• Confirm that the child or staff’s consent is active, informed, current, and recorded, and applies to the school’s social media posts.
• Determine whether the post can identify a specific person.
• Consider the account the image will be posted on and the audience.
• Consider alternative angles for taking the photo or the possibility of editing before posting.
• Review and ensure strong privacy settings for the account and controls for tags and comments on posts.
• Decide on a governance structure for the approval of content and recording consents.
• Review archived material with a privacy lens.
• Implement good privacy practices in relation to data storage, retention and disposal.

What can schools do to prevent a critical online incident?

Schools need to give students clear guidance about AI-edited content, including education about how creating deepfakes can result in criminal charges.

Teachers can use the Best Practice Framework for Online Safety Education to help build students’ digital literacy.

Schools can update their student behaviour policies to cover AI-manipulated content and the posting of online images, including having a critical online incident plan. See the eSafety’s Toolkit for Schools.

What should schools do when an image is misused?

In the event of a critical online incident, schools should follow their response plan and the student behaviour policies in place.

The eSafety Commissioner recommends the following response:

1. Collect evidence before reporting or blocking an account.
2. Report the content or account to the service.
3. Communicate with families carefully.
4. Plan for content to reappear and keep those affected informed.

In some cases, schools may need to report the incident to the eSafety Commissioner, report the incident to the police, or seek legal advice if it is appropriate to do so.

More information

For more information about sharing school images appropriately, please refer to the eSafety Commissioner’s advisory: Sharing school imagery in the age of AI: risks, deepfakes, and how to protect students and staff | eSafety Commissioner . In addition, the eSafety’s Toolkit for Schools contains a range of resources to help schools to manage and respond to online safety incidents.

The National Copyright Unit (NCU) has noticed an increasing number of copyright infringement notices sent to schools.

These notices generally allege that a school has used an image, including on their website, newsletters or social media pages, without permission.

In many cases, old material that is no longer in use, but which remains accessible online, can be the subject of a copyright infringement notice.

Schools should keep in mind that they have not necessarily infringed copyright because they receive a notice and should not assume that they are required to pay the amount requested or take out a licence. See below for what steps to take when your school receives a notice.

What can schools do to minimise the risk of receiving a notice?

Taking these steps can minimise the risk of your school receiving a notice:

1. Regularly reviewing the school’s public-facing webpages.
2. Removing content that is no longer needed.
3. Using and attributing Creative Commons (CC) images for public-facing school websites and newsletters, by always including the Title, Author, Source and Licence of the material.
4. Reviewing all content before it is shared on a public platform.
5. Keeping accurate records, including where the images were found, and any licences that applied or any permissions to use them.

How should schools respond when they receive a notice?

Schools which receive an infringement notice should:

1. remove the material immediately.
2. gather information about the material and claim, including where the image(s) came from and any licences or permissions that potentially apply.
3. not admit liability or agree to make a payment if it is being requested.
4. contact the National Copyright Unit (NCU) at smartcopying@det.nsw.edu.au, providing them with:
   
   1. a copy of the notice;
   2. details of the material;
   3. date and time the material was taken down;
   4. any licenses or permissions to use the material; and
   5. other relevant information.

Resources

For more information, visit the NCU’s Smartcopying website here: Smartcopying Homepage - Smartcopying, and download their Copyright Infringement Notice resource: Copyright Infringement Notices

The NCU is currently developing a Copyright Infringement Notice Toolkit for schools. CSNSW will share this Toolkit once it is published by the NCU.

The NCU also runs a Webinar Series which you can find here: National Copyright Webinar Series - Smartcopying.