Hundreds of school children have been added to a group chat on WhatsApp containing what has been described as “inappropriate and illegal content”.
The BBC has seen a email sent from Ribston Hall High School in Gloucester warning parents that “a number” of 11 and 12 year-olds in year seven have been invited in to the group.
It states that “almost 300 secondary aged children from local schools” are in the group, which might also include “other unknown individuals”.
Gloucestershire Police has confirmed it received a report relating to an indecent image posted in the group, which it believes may have generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) .
The email was sent by head teacher, Alec Waters, on Tuesday afternoon highlighting the incident to parents and urging them to report any concerns to the school and discuss cyber-safety with their children.
It is not known which other schools in the county have been impacted.
Gloucestershire police said a detective from the Indecent Images of Children team has been in contact with the person who reported the group chat and an image from it has been looked at.
The force has advised parents and carers to talk to children about the dangers of being added in to unknown chats and to “block, delete and report groups of this nature immediately”.
It said the default setting in WhatsApp allows anyone to add a number to a group chat without needing permission.
This can be disabled through the ‘who can add me to groups’ tab in the privacy settings section.
In a statement a spokesperson for WhatsApp said it gives “everyone options to control who can add them to groups”.
“No one outside of your contacts can add you, if you don’t want,” they added.
“The first time you receive a message from an unknown number and when you’re added to a group, we give you more context and the option to exit, or block and report.”
Ribston Hall High School has been approached for comment.