In this episode, Mark Orchison, Julia Pidduck, and Dan Fitzpatrick tackle the rapid AI developments impacting schools today—from Meta’s new wearable hardware and OpenAI’s agentic tools to silent software updates like Microsoft Teams auto-transcriptions. Plus, an exclusive interview with Dan Furness (Council of International Schools) and Debbie Downes (ICMEC) on AI-enabled harms, student voice, and practical prevention.
AI is creating new safeguarding risks for schools, from covert wearables and silent platform updates to AI-generated abuse imagery and extortion. At the same time, new regulation is making transparency with parents a legal obligation rather than a nice-to-have. This episode breaks down the operational, legal and safeguarding realities schools face and offers practical steps for building an effective response.
1. Tech Updates and Hidden AI Integrations
Dan rounds up the latest developments, from Meta's new AI hardware and smart glasses to ElevenLabs' strikingly realistic v4 voice model and OpenAI's new agentic tool. Julia explains how small, covert wearables such as AI recorders and smart glasses are being brought into school, leaving schools with no control over where recordings go. Meanwhile, silent platform updates, such as Microsoft Teams switching on transcripts and recordings by default and storing them in SharePoint Embedded, create sudden data privacy and Subject Access Request (SAR) risks.
2. Global Safeguarding and AI-Enabled Harms
In an exclusive interview with Dan Furness (Head of Safeguarding and Wellbeing, CIS) and Debbie Downes (Director of Global School Initiatives, ICMEC), we examine critical safeguarding trends:
* AI-Generated CSAM and Extortion: How nudifying apps, fake images and image scraping from school websites and social media are used to target and extort students and schools.
* Emerging Online Harms: Coercive control in youth relationships through tracking, sadistic online exploitation groups ("comms"), online bullying, gaming and gambling, and the risks of AI companions used for emotional support.
3. Prevention over Punishment: Student Voice and Safe Adults
Punitive, zero-tolerance responses stop students speaking up, whether they fear a peer being expelled or losing their own device at home. Effective prevention relies on:
* Student Voice and Influence: Using models like the Lundy Model to make sure student voice actually shapes school decisions, rather than being a tick-box student council.
* Being "Curious, Not Furious": Revising behaviour codes with a restorative approach and positioning educators and parents as trusted, safe adults.
4. Informed Consent, Vendor Management and 9ine Trust
A once-a-year permission slip is no longer enough. New regulation increasingly requires schools to tell parents where AI is used and what personal data is processed, and to obtain consent where needed. Parents may even ask to see their child's interactions with AI tools. Learn why safeguarding leads should be part of every vendor review, and how 9ine's vendor assessments and the upcoming 9ine Trust platform help schools stay transparent and compliant.
Over 20 years' experience helping schools navigate technology, cyber, privacy and safeguarding — a highly respected voice in K-12 education governance.
Bestselling author of The AI Classroom, Forbes contributor, and award-winning strategist who has helped over 100,000 educators worldwide navigate AI responsibly.
Julia explains how schools can assess AI and EdTech vendors across safeguarding, security, educational value, privacy and data protection — and what genuine contract transparency should look like.
Leads safeguarding and well-being for CIS member schools worldwide, and is working with the International Taskforce on Child Protection on its forthcoming briefing on online harm and abuse.
Co-chairs the International Taskforce on Child Protection committee on Online Harm and Abuse. A former teacher and principal with 18 years in international education, she trains schools worldwide on child protection.
Discover how 9ine Trust connects schools, parents, and students—providing complete visibility into the technology, data privacy, and AI tools used in everyday school life.