Social Networking Sites

Lord St John of Bletso Excerpts

Wednesday 11th January 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

My noble friend speaks with great experience from his distinguished teaching career. The Government are aware of how proficient young children can be at setting up accounts and using the internet generally. We are backing the launch by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety of a one-stop approach to advise on online safety which will occur on 7 February. On my noble friend’s last question, I should be very happy to go ahead with the meeting as he suggests.

[Lord St John of Bletso]

Does the Minister agree that schools have an extremely important role to play in ensuring that young people and children are aware of the risks of social networking, in building resilience, and in ensuring that young people are aware of the harmful impacts that their online behaviour can have on others?

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

Yes, indeed; I entirely agree with what the noble Lord said. In July the Government published guidance to schools on behaviour and bullying that summarises legal obligations and encourages schools to identify the motivations behind bullying and encourage people to seek further help and advice as necessary. This is an issue that the Government take very seriously.