Ensuring appropriate privacy standards in changing rooms, toilets, and private spaces in organisations working with children.
Changing Room Safety is the rules and safeguards that protect a child's privacy and dignity when changing clothes at school, sport, or activities, including preventing inappropriate observation or filming.
Changing rooms, toilets, and shower facilities in sports clubs, swimming pools, and schools are areas where children are particularly vulnerable. Organisations need clear policies about adult access, supervision, and photography.
Risk in changing areas usually comes from policy gaps rather than a single bad actor. The recurring patterns are: an adult lingering or undressing in the same space as children, mixed-age changing where younger children are exposed to older peers, phones brought in 'just for music', photos or videos taken as a joke and shared on a group chat, no separate cubicle option for a child who feels unsafe undressing in front of others, and no named staff member responsible for supervising the space from outside the door. The Online Safety Act 2023 and the ICO's Age-Appropriate Design Code both push organisations to be clearer about phones and image capture; KCSiE 2025 expects schools to publish a written changing-and-toileting policy that parents can ask for.
In your child's behaviour
On their device
Check organisation policies
Ask about their changing room supervision policy. Adults should not routinely be in changing areas with children.
Discuss body boundaries
Remind your child that their body is private and they have the right to privacy when changing.
No phones in changing rooms
Ensure your child knows phones should never be used in changing areas — no photos, no videos, no exceptions.
In immediate danger: call 999. For non-emergency police matters, call 101.
Concerned about a child but it's not an emergency? NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000. Childline for young people 0800 1111.
This is practical educational content to support families. For case-specific concerns about a child's safety, contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000 or your local safeguarding team.
Myth: No adult should ever be in a changing room with children, so any adult presence is a warning sign.
Fact: Young children sometimes need supervision or help, and guidance from the NSPCC's Child Protection in Sport Unit is about how that is done safely: adults working in pairs, staying within sight of others, and never being alone with a child behind a closed door. Ask the club or pool for its written changing-room policy rather than assuming any adult presence is wrong.
Myth: A no-phones poster on the wall means photography in the changing room is dealt with.
Fact: A sign is not the same as supervision or enforcement. Ask how staff actually monitor changing areas, where phones and cameras are expected to be kept, and what happens if the rule is broken — a good venue can answer all three without hesitation.
Myth: If my child wants to change privately, they are just being awkward and will grow out of it.
Fact: Wanting privacy while changing is legitimate at any age, and venues can usually offer cubicles, different timing, or changing at home. It is also worth gently exploring any sudden new reluctance around a particular venue or session, as changes in behaviour are always worth hearing out.
Ask how the club or pool handles young children who need help changing — good practice is parents helping their own child, or staff working in pairs and in sight of colleagues, never alone with a child behind a closed door.
Teach your child that nobody should photograph them while changing and that they can tell you or a member of staff straight away if it happens. Check the venue has a clear rule that phones and cameras stay out of changing areas.
Peer phone use becomes the bigger risk at this age. Be direct that taking or sharing pictures of anyone changing is never acceptable and is illegal where under-18s are involved, and agree what your child should do if they see it happen.
Respect their growing need for privacy while keeping the conversation open. Make sure they know they can ask for a cubicle, raise a concern with staff, and tell you about anything that felt wrong without being blamed for it.
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