UK school pupils ‘using AI to create indecent imagery of other children’

Protection groups call for urgent action to help pupils understand risks of making images that legally constitute child sexual abuse

Children in British schools are using artificial intelligence (AI) to make indecent images of other children, a group of experts on child abuse and technology has warned.

They said that a number of schools were reporting for the first time that pupils were using AI-generating technology to create images of children that legally constituted child sexual abuse material.

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Penguin Random House launches high schoolers’ award to combat book bans

The publisher’s $10,000 Freedom of Expression prize invites teens to write about a banned book that changed their life, against a backdrop of rising censorship

Publisher Penguin Random House has launched a new writing award in the US celebrating freedom of expression in response to a rise in book bans across the country.

The Freedom of Expression award invites applicants to write about one banned book that changed their life and why. The $10,000 (£8,168) prize will be awarded to a high-school student planning to attend university in 2024.

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Gillian Keegan tells schools to let parents see sex education materials

Education secretary’s letter emphasises copyright cannot be used as ‘excuse’ to withhold RSHE teaching resources

Gillian Keegan has written to schools in England ordering them to make the materials used in children’s sex education available to be seen by parents, warning headteachers there can be “no ifs, no buts, no more excuses”.

It is the second letter the education secretary has sent to schools on the issue, which has been seized upon by some backbench Conservative MPs amid claims that children are being exposed to inappropriate material during relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) at school.

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‘If we don’t teach kids about consent, the internet will’: Natasha Devon on the importance of sex education

The mental health campaigner’s new book tackles sex and relationships through the eyes of a 16-year-old. In the face of a backlash against inclusive sex ed in schools she explains why we have to keep the conversation open

Sex education has always been a hot topic. But at a time when children are seeing pornography by the age of 13 on average, it feels especially urgent. With her young adult novel Babushka, the sequel to the coming-of-age Toxic, mental health campaigner Natasha Devon MBE tackles themes like victim blaming, safe sex and healthy relationships through the eyes of Cerys, age 16, who leaves Wales for the bright lights of London declaring: “I’ve never felt like I don’t know who I am. Just that I was in the wrong place.”

Devon herself felt similarly when she was growing up in Ugley, a village in Essex. Reading magazines like Cosmopolitan made her think: “In a big city I’ll find my tribe.”

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School leaders frustrated by ‘squabble’ over Sunak’s promised transgender guidance

Internal battle between ministers leaving schools in England isolated, says headteachers’ representative

Schools are being left in limbo by the government’s “political squabbles” delaying its transgender guidance for students and staff, according to school leaders.

Rishi Sunak had promised that guidance for schools in England dealing with trans issues would be published by the end of the summer term. But the guidance has been held up by legal questions, with No 10 saying on Wednesday that “more evidence is required” before publication.

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School in ‘cat pupil’ controversy given Ofsted all-clear after snap inspection

Inspectors praise ‘sensitive and impartial’ teaching of relationship and sex education at Rye College after secret video raised concerns

Ofsted has given the school at the centre of the “cat pupil” allegations a clean bill of health, with inspectors praising its “culture of kindness” as well as its handling of relationship and sex education.

Ofsted inspected Rye College in East Sussex after a complaint by Kemi Badenoch, the minister for women and equalities. There had been media coverage of a video of pupils arguing with a teacher over gender and identity, with one pupil appearing to claim that a student identified as a cat.

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Teenagers in Scotland campaign to improve education on consent

Bold Girls Ken seek youth-led changes in curriculum to help children understand concept earlier

Every young person should know what consent looks and feels like, online and offline, according to a group of Perthshire teenagers who are pioneering a youth-led upgrade of sex education.

Taking a bracingly honest approach to the deluge of “normalised” soft pornography they say most children are familiar with by the time they enter high school, Bold Girls Ken is the first campaign of its kind in Scotland, with young women designing their own learning materials.

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‘Child identifying as cat’ controversy: from TikTok video to media frenzy

Tory calls for urgent investigation raise eyebrows as Rye college says no pupil identifies ‘as a cat or any other animal’

It started off innocuously enough – a leaked snippet of teenage pupils at a school debating whether a person could identify as a cat.

But within days, and thanks to a media frenzy, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer were being asked about the remarks. And by the end of the week, Kemi Badenoch was demanding the school be urgently investigated by Ofsted in case there were safeguarding issues.

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Children in England’s schools need better sex education, experts tell MPs

Too few teachers have training in how to deliver lessons in relationships and sex, committee told

Children need more and better sex and relationship education in England’s schools, to help them navigate the issues they are likely to face as they get older, experts have told MPs.

The Commons women and equalities committee heard that too few teachers in England have received training in how to deliver lessons in relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) since it became a compulsory topic in 2019.

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Sex education overhaul in England based on ‘overblown’ claims, say teachers

DfE proposes age ratings for classes after Tory MP claimed children were given ‘graphic lessons on oral sex’

Plans to overhaul official guidance on sex education in schools are blowing a perceived problem out of all proportion, teachers’ representatives have said.

The Department for Education (DfE) has set out proposals to introduce age ratings designed to prevent teachers covering some subject matter with younger children, as well as other measures, after the prime minister ordered the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, to bring forward a planned review.

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