Last Updated on 1st May 2026
Welcome Back to Your April Newsletter!
Educate – Empower – Protect
Welcome back to your monthly Safer Schools NI newsletter! This month, we brought you handy resources on how to spot fake news and deepfakes with the T-R-U-T-H Checker alongside giving you the need-to-know on Nudify platforms. Keep reading to see what else has been released and to make sure you’re in the know when it comes to online safety!
News and Alerts ℹ️
Key updates and alerts as seen on your app’s news feed.
Understanding AI ‘Nudify’ Apps
As AI technology evolves, so do the risks to young people’s privacy and wellbeing. We have released a critical new guide on the rise of “nudification” platforms – AI tools used to create non-consensual, explicit imagery.
Our latest article explains exactly what these apps are, the legal implications involved, and how to facilitate the sensitive conversations needed to protect your students.
The Truth Checker
Is your feed telling you the whole truth?
Anywhere we look online, we can run into deepfakes and often, critical thinking is our ultimate safeguarding tool. We’ve developed the T-R-U-T-H Checker, a practical toolkit designed to help young people spot misinformation and verify what they see online.
Empower the young people in your care to navigate their feeds with confidence. Download today and share it with your staff and school community!
Talking to Children about Distressing News
Heavy Headlines, Steady Conversations
Global events often reach young people’s devices before we have time to process them ourselves. We’ve released a new guide to help you manage these moments, providing the tools needed to turn heavy headlines into constructive, calm conversations.
How to Read: Head to the Online Safety News section of your mobile or web app for the full guide.
✨Read more within your Online Safety News section of the App.✨
Technical Support 👩🏼💻
Updates and tips from our Support Centre.
Mobile App Demonstration for Staff
Need a refresher on how to use your Safer Schools mobile app? Watch our short video to learn where to find key resources and safeguarding tools at your fingertips. It will also help you check you’re logged into your school’s account correctly and show you how to manage push notifications so you don’t miss important updates. Watch today and check out our other instructional videos!
Training 🗓️
Your pathway to continuous professional development
Live webinars beginning next week!
Our new webinar series begins next week and covers key topics which we believe teachers and professionals should be informed about in order to better protect and empower their school community.
Each webinar lasts just one hour and covers real life examples and research, risk factors and dangers, as well as practical steps, guidance and support. The courses are CPD certified to allow you to enhance your professional development and free to join for all Safer Schools. Our topics include:
Resource Highlight ✨
The ready-to-use, relevant resource you need
Navigating Masculinity in the Age of the Influencer
A safer school culture is built on the foundation of better conversations. Our Masculinity Pack is more than just a collection of documents, it is a comprehensive roadmap for your school community.
This journey-based resource equips your staff with a CPD-certified webinar and provides teachers with ready-to-use lesson plans to tackle these topics head-on. Empower your students and start the conversation in your classrooms today.
Find the resources in the Teach Hub and access our training here!
Remember your Teach Hub license key is EDU-SAF-SCH-TH
Community News and Updates 📢
The latest in the locality
Thank you to C2K, EdIS and EA for inviting us to your events last week in Lisburn and Cookstown. It was great to hear the latest updates and insights from the UK Safer Internet Centre’s briefing, and to listen to NI teachers’ views on, and experiences with, children’s online safety, emerging risks and the potential social media ban. Thank you as well to everyone who stopped to chat with us about relaunching Safer Schools in their school community, tech support or to be signposted to relevant resources.
If you would like to get in touch with us for any further support or to receive guidance on your next steps for Safer Schools, we’re always happy to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] or call us at 02896 005 777.
Feature Spotlight 🔦
Unlock your app’s full potential
Safety Centre
Not sure how to make your child’s TikTok account private or how to report a concern on Discord? The Safer Schools Safety Centre is your go-to digital library. It provides easy-to-follow, step-by-step guides on the privacy and safety settings for the apps your children use every day.
Visit oursafetycentre.co.uk to empower yourself with the tools to keep your school community safer online.
Media News 🗞️
Safeguarding and Online Safety News
📱 ‘The most serious issue for schools’: What’s being done about smartphones in class?: A headteacher has warned that smartphone culture is the greatest challenge facing education in a generation, impacting children’s brain development and wellbeing. In response, dozens of primary schools are adopting voluntary “charters” where parents agree to delay buying smartphones for their children until secondary school.
🤖 Meta will now allow parents to see the topics their child discussed with Meta AI: Meta has launched a new Insights tab within its parental supervision tools, allowing parents to view the broad categories, such as health, school, or lifestyle that their teens have explored with the platform’s AI chatbot over the past week. This update aims to provide families with more transparency regarding AI interactions while attempting to maintain teen privacy.
#️⃣ TikTok Now Lets Users Add Specific Keywords to Their Profiles to Help Performance: TikTok is testing a new feature that allows creators to manually add relevant keywords to their account metadata, helping the algorithm better categorise content and connect users with specific interests. This update highlights the platform’s shift toward search engine functionality, making it easier for creators—and potentially harmful influencers—to reach targeted audiences.
💬 X’s messaging app XChat may be available soon: X (formerly Twitter) plans to launch “XChat,” a standalone messaging app for iOS designed to separate private conversations and group chats from the main social media feed. While it features end-to-end encryption and screenshot blocking to enhance privacy, security experts have raised concerns about its actual robustness compared to established platforms like Signal or WhatsApp.
License, Links and Logins 🔑
All the information you need to access the world of Safer Schools NI at your fingertips!
Did you know…
“Seven in ten (70%) children aged 11-17 had seen or heard some form of content harmful to children”
Source: Ofcom 2025
Make sure to follow us on social media for the latest updates and developments!
