Real-time monitoring
Every conversation is monitored as it happens, and alerts are scored Low, Medium, High or Critical so the right concern reaches the right adult first.
For Designated Safeguarding Leads
AI safeguarding you can actually see.
Generative AI is now part of your filtering and monitoring brief. This page sets out what that means for the DSL role, the questions to ask of any AI tool before students use it, and how HeyOtto for Schools puts alerts and oversight in your hands.
Counselor visibility · Real-time alerts · Ages 8–18 · Tool controls
What should a designated safeguarding lead know about AI? Generative AI is now part of the DSL's filtering and monitoring brief. Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 writes AI into contact and conduct risk, asks the DSL to understand the school's filtering and monitoring systems, and requires an annual review with records.
- AI is now written into the DSL's safeguarding duties
- Ask seven questions before students log in
- Record the annual filtering and monitoring review
- HeyOtto supports the process; it does not replace it
AI is now written into the DSL's safeguarding duties
AI appears in the risk categories
Contact risk now covers harmful interactions with AI chatbots. Conduct risk covers explicit images made or shared using AI, and AI-generated imagery and deepfakes now sit within "nudes and semi-nudes".
Filtering and monitoring is part of the DSL role
The DSL's job description should explicitly include understanding the school's filtering and monitoring systems. KCSIE points schools to the DfE's generative AI product safety standards to apply those duties to AI tools.
An annual review, with records
Schools should review filtering and monitoring at least once a year, led by the responsible SLT member with the DSL and IT. Keep a record of when checks ran, which devices were tested, what was found and what was done.
Before students log in
Seven questions to ask of any AI tool
Drawn from the DfE's generative AI product safety standards. Ask every supplier, including us, and keep the answers with your annual review.
| Area | Ask the supplier | Why it matters to the DSL |
|---|---|---|
| Filtering | Does harmful content stay blocked across a whole conversation, in images, other languages and misspellings, and on personal devices signed in with a school account? | Students test boundaries over several messages, not one. |
| Monitoring | Are prompts and responses logged, and are staff alerted to attempted or successful access to harmful content? | You can only act on what you can see. |
| Disclosures | Are safeguarding disclosures flagged to the DSL, and is the DSL named and verified when the school is set up? | A disclosure to a chatbot is still a disclosure. |
| Distress | How does the tool respond to signs of distress, and does it point students towards trusted adults? Is there a published crisis protocol? | The tool's first response shapes what happens next. |
| Human-like design | Does the tool avoid presenting itself as a person, implying feelings, or encouraging students to rely on it emotionally? | Emotional reliance on a chatbot is a contact risk. |
| Privacy | Is there a DPIA and an age-appropriate privacy notice? Is student work ever used to train models, and with whose permission? | Data protection sits alongside safeguarding. |
| Reports | Can a non-specialist read the reports, and can you export what you need for your filtering and monitoring review? | Evidence for the annual review shouldn't need IT to decode. |
Want this as a working checklist?
The School AI Readiness Checklist covers safeguarding alongside policy, staffing and training.
How HeyOtto for Schools helps
Oversight built for the people who hold safeguarding. HeyOtto is a general-purpose AI tool for students aged 8–18, with school accounts set up around your controls. It supports your safeguarding process; it doesn't replace it.
Patterns over time
HeyOtto looks at how a student's conversations change over time, so slower-building concerns can surface before they escalate.
Live dashboards
Teachers see the room as it happens, and the adults who run the programme get visibility and real-time alerts.
Role-based access
SSO-ready sign-in and roles that decide who sees what, with shared guardrails across every building in a trust or district.
Age-appropriate controls
Set boundaries by age and need, and shape the experience around your school's values with mission settings.
Parental consent on every account
HeyOtto requires parental consent on all accounts, whatever the student's age.
Next step
Checking us against the DfE standards?
Our Trust Center shows where HeyOtto stands on children's online safety and AI laws. If you need a written supplier response for your risk assessment or DPIA, ask us and we'll send it to you.
FAQ
Questions DSLs ask us
Next step
Give your DSL a clear view of AI use
Set up HeyOtto for Schools with your safeguarding team, or talk to us about your risk assessment first.