Safeguarding Webinar Series (Three Episodes)

Episode 1—An Introduction to the Dangers of AI-assisted and Deepfake Imagery

In this episode, we’ll explore the dangers AI-assisted and deepfake images pose to our children. Together, we will investigate their prevalence and how these images are used to target, influence and harm children. We will specifically explore the risks of deepfake pornography and the laws around this and look at measures we can take to protect the children in our care.

Episode 2—Emojis, Acronyms and young people’s use of social media to engage in Sexual Behaviour

This episode explores the use of social media by young people to engage in consensual and non-consensual sexual activity. Together, we will consider how emojis and acronyms are used by young people online, mainly to engage in sexual conversations and to avoid being monitored by adults. Finally, we will investigate why children share nudes and the risks of doing so before looking at ways we can encourage them to seek support and make safe decisions.

Episode 3—Engaging Families in Online Safety – How to support parents and carers to keep their children safe online

In the final episode of this webinar series, we will examine the most popular social media platforms, digging into why children like each one and how it works. Together, we will look at the unique risks associated with each one and establish good online safety practices around information-sharing, image-sharing, and reporting issues. Finally, we will consider simple yet dynamic ways in which we can engage busy parents/carers in online safety and work together to keep their children safe.

Understand what AI-assisted images are, and their prevalence.
Gain an understanding of deepfake images, their prevalence and how they can be used to harm children.
Explore the associated safeguarding risks of these types of images – from harmful fake news, to deepfake influencers and deepfake pornographic and abusive images.
Understand how children and young people use emojis and acronyms to engage in sexual chat and sexual activity online.
Explore the practice of Sexting or ‘Sharing Nudes’, the reasons why children engage with it and the associated risks.Consider how young people use social media to harass one another sexually.
Understand how the most popular social media apps work – and the unique risks associated with each.
Consider how we can encourage safe practices – sharing images, keeping information private and knowing how to report when something goes wrong.
Explore how we can effectively engage parents and carers in Online Safety.

Staff working with children aged 4-18
DSLs, Deputy DSLs and Inclusion Leaders

Beth Davies

Beth has a passion for demystifying safeguarding, believing strongly that confidence is the key to truly embedding that ‘golden thread’ of safeguarding throughout education. She believes in empowering each individual, uniquely placed in their role across education and childcare to recognise that they play a valuable role in safeguarding children.

In order to achieve this, she helps take the sting out of safeguarding, reminding professionals of the reason why they chose to work with children originally. Having counselling training combined with a wealth of on-the-ground experience working with at-risk groups, Beth brings a down-to-earth and empathic approach to training. From creating and leading empowerment workshops for young victims of exploitation in rural Kenya to supporting looked after children involved in exploitation across the West Midlands in the UK, Beth is passionate about supporting young people to thrive, using creative methods.

Having a wealth of knowledge about Online Safety and developing trends that can place young people at risk, she helps teachers to navigate the interwoven worlds of online and offline risks. Beth currently spends her time supporting and training a wide range of education providers including special needs schools as well as multi-academy trusts and thoroughly relishes the opportunity to encourage and empower those working hard to keep children safe.

Despite having worked within education for several years, Beth finds her previous roles working in the charity sector help her to have a holistic approach to safeguarding. Having experience working within addiction recovery, anti-human trafficking and advocacy for refugees, she is passionate about the impact and lifelong rewards that come with Early Intervention.