Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department is taking steps to educate young people about the potential dangers of social media outside of formal education.

The Department wants to support all young people to be happy, healthy and safe. There is a focus on ensuring the curriculum provides children and young people with knowledge on internet safety. The computing curriculum ensures that pupils are responsible and competent users of information and communication technology. This autumn, the National Centre of Computing Education will be launched, which will support the teaching of computing.

The Department is also making Relationships Education compulsory in all primary schools, Relationships and Sex Education compulsory in all secondary schools and Health Education compulsory in all state-funded schools.

The Department is currently consulting on the draft regulations that will make the subjects compulsory, as well as the accompanying guidance: https://consult.education.gov.uk/pshe/relationships-education-rse-health-education/.

The draft guidance sets out that teaching about internet safety, including the benefits and risks of social media, should be integrated into these subjects. The draft guidance also provides examples of resources from reputable organisations that can be used by schools and any other organisation working with children and young people. For example, the UK Council for Child Internet Safety recently published “The Education for a Connected World framework” which describes the digital knowledge and skills that children and young people should have the opportunity to develop at different ages and stages of their lives. The framework is designed to support schools, colleges, parents and children’s organisations.

More information on the framework can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/683895/Education_for_a_connected_world_PDF.PDF.