The new report by Aidos - a Norwich-based company aiming to safeguard schools and students from image abuse - found 49pc of 500 headteachers surveyed have experienced an incident in which pictures of pupils have been misused, manipulated or used as part of an extortion or blackmail attempt.

It comes as UK child-protection agencies are warning about the new threat of criminals scraping photos of children from school websites and social media, then using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to create hyper-realistic sexual abuse images for blackmail and exploitation.

Six of the 14 headteachers in Norwich who took part in the survey said their school had experienced an incident in which pupil images were abused.

In the east of England, 15 out of 47 headteachers admitted to their institution being targeted.

The Internet Watch Foundation, which works to block the distribution of such material, identified more than 8,000 AI‑generated child sexual abuse images and videos last year - a 14pc increase from 2024.

Meanwhile, AI‑generated videos jumped from 13 cases in 2024 to 3,443 in 2025.

Simon Bailey CBE, a former national policing lead for child protection and ex-chief constable of Norfolk, who stepped down in 2021, said he has "never seen a threat to children escalate as fast as this one".

Simon Bailey, the former chief constable of Norfolk, pictured in 2019 (Image:........

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