Social Media & Online Offence | Sanction Guidelines

Social media
Communication or online offence

This offence may apply where a pupil uses social media, messaging apps, online platforms, gaming platforms, email, artificial intelligence tools, or other digital communication to bully, threaten, harass, humiliate, impersonate, exploit, intimidate, spread harmful material, or otherwise cause harm to another pupil, member of staff, or the wider school community.

Step 1 – Determining the offence category

You should determine the offence category with reference only to the factors in the tables below. In order to determine the category, you should assess culpability and harm.

Culpability

The level of culpability or blame is worked out by looking at all the factors involved in the incident. If there are elements that point to different levels of blame, you should weigh these up carefully and give the most relevant ones the right amount of importance to reach a fair judgement about the person’s level of responsibility.

A – High culpability

Significant planning, coordination, or premeditation
Leading role in group-based online offending
Deliberate campaign of online abuse, humiliation, intimidation, or harassment
Use of social media or messaging to threaten violence, serious harm, or sexual harm
Sharing, creating, or circulating intimate, sexualised, or degrading content without consent
Use of AI tools to create or circulate deepfake, manipulated, or synthetic images, audio, or video of another person
Use of digital platforms for sextortion, blackmail, coercion, or threats to share material
Impersonation of another person in order to damage reputation, relationships, or wellbeing
Deliberate targeting of a vulnerable pupil, member of staff, or protected characteristic
Persistent offending after warnings, sanctions, or opportunities to stop
Offending designed to trigger fear, mass humiliation, social exclusion, or serious reputational harm
Sharing content widely, publicly, or across multiple platforms
Deliberate attempt to evade detection, conceal identity, or delete evidence
Online offending linked to another serious offence, for example false allegations, bullying, assault, sexual harassment, or hate-related behaviour

B – Medium culpability

Deliberate online misconduct without the highest level of planning
Posting, forwarding, commenting, or reacting in a way intended to cause offence, upset, or embarrassment
Supporting or encouraging online abuse started by others
Reckless online behaviour with clear risk of harm to others
Sharing harmful content with a smaller audience or in a more limited way
Online behaviour causing clear distress, conflict, or disruption, but not at the most serious level
Some role in a group incident, but not leading it
Incident falling between categories A and C

C – Lesser culpability

Limited planning or impulsive behaviour
Isolated or short-lived incident
Poor judgement, immaturity, or limited awareness of likely consequences
Involvement through peer pressure or manipulation by others
Lower-level misuse of communication causing limited harm
Quick removal, retraction, or cooperation once challenged
Responsibility substantially reduced by age, immaturity, learning difficulty, or personal circumstances

Harm

Harm 1

Serious psychological, emotional, or reputational harm caused to another person
Serious safeguarding concern created
Serious humiliation, fear, intimidation, or social exclusion caused
Serious impact on a pupil’s safety, attendance, mental wellbeing, or ability to engage in school
Serious harm caused to a member of staff’s reputation, authority, or wellbeing
Sharing, creation, or threat to share sexualised, intimate, or manipulated content
Serious disruption to the school day, safeguarding processes, investigation, or wider school community
Harm amplified by wide circulation, repeated viewing, permanence, or difficulty removing content
Serious impact on the school’s reputation or community confidence

Harm 2

Clear distress, embarrassment, upset, or reputational damage caused
Noticeable disruption to relationships, learning, staff time, or school routines
Harm caused by circulation of messages, images, posts, comments, or recordings that do not reach the highest level
Harm falling between categories 1 and 3 because:
factors are present in 1 and 3 which balance each other out and/or
the harm falls between the factors described in 1 and 3

Harm 3

Limited distress or embarrassment caus
Limited circulation or short-lived impact
Lower-level harm with minimal lasting effect
Limited wider disruption to the school community

Step 2 – Starting point and category range

Where online offending forms part of a wider incident, headteachers should consider whether this guidance should be used alongside other relevant sections of Sanction Guidelines, for example bullying, threatening behaviour, false allegations, mobile phones, sexual harassment, assault, or trespassing.

Where the online offending involves intimate image abuse, AI-generated abuse, serious threats, sextortion, impersonation, or a sustained campaign of harassment, headteachers should consider whether the incident is sufficiently serious to justify a high-end fixed-term exclusion or permanent exclusion. Recent national guidance and sector advice increasingly highlight deepfake content, AI-driven bullying, online exploitation, harmful manipulated content, misinformation, and child protection risks linked to generative AI as live issues for schools.

Step 3 – Take into consideration Aggravating and Mitigating factors

The school could consider any adjustment for any aggravating or mitigating factors. Below is a non-exhaustive list of additional factual elements providing the context of the offence and factors relating to the offender.

Identify whether any combination of these, or other relevant factors, should result in an upward or downward adjustment from the starting point of punitive action.

Factors increasing seriousness (Aggravation Factors)

Previous similar online offending or repeated breaches of the behaviour or online safety policy
Nature of previous offences and their relevance to the current offence
Time elapsed since previous offences
Group offending, especially where the pupil led, encouraged, or coordinated others
Deliberate reposting, forwarding, liking, commenting on, or amplifying harmful content
Use of anonymous, fake, or impersonation accounts
Deliberate creation or circulation of deepfake, manipulated, or synthetic media
Threats to share sexualised, private, or embarrassing material
Sextortion, blackmail, coercion, or pressure for images, money, or compliance
Targeting a vulnerable pupil, a member of staff, or a protected characteristic
Wider or repeated circulation across group chats, multiple platforms, or public accounts
Attempts to evade detection, delete evidence, or pressure others to stay silent
Offending linked to bullying, hate, misogyny, false allegations, or sexual harassment
Significant impact on attendance, emotional wellbeing, staff time, or safeguarding processes
Damage to the reputation of the school

Factors reducing seriousness or reflecting personal mitigation

No previous similar offences or no relevant/recent offences
Genuine remorse
Early admission, deletion, retraction, or cooperation
Good character and/or exemplary conduct
Isolated incident
Limited understanding of the scale or likely impact, particularly in lower-level cases
Age and/or lack of maturity
Additional Learning Needs
Evidence of peer pressure, coercion, or manipulation by others
Family circumstances

Safeguarding issues should be considered separately and are not necessarily mitigating factors.

Step 4 – Adjust starting point and category range

Having taken into consideration all aggravating and mitigating factors adjust starting point as deemed best fit.

Where the offending involves serious harassment, threats, impersonation, deepfake or manipulated content, sextortion, intimate image abuse, repeated group targeting, or serious safeguarding consequences, an upward adjustment is likely to be appropriate.

Where the incident is isolated, lower-level, quickly corrected, and causes limited harm, with genuine remorse and clear personal mitigation, a downward adjustment may be appropriate.

Social media Communication or online offence