Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department has issued to schools on managing incidents in which children have (a) filmed and (b) disseminated footage of other children being harmed by their peers.

All pupils and staff should feel safe and protected at school, and nobody should face violence or abuse.

Schools should prohibit the use of mobile phones and other smart technology with similar functionality throughout the school day, including during lessons, the time between lessons, breaktimes and lunchtime, as set out in the 2024 ‘Mobile phones in schools’ guidance. Evidence from the Children’s Commissioner published in April 2025, shows over 90% of schools are restricting the use of phones during the school day. The department expects all schools to take steps in line with this guidance to ensure mobile phones do not disrupt pupils’ learning.

Schools should make clear to pupils that good behaviour does not end at the school gates and that, even though the online space differs in many ways, the same standards of behaviour are expected online as offline, and that everyone should be treated with kindness and respect.

In cases where pupils do misbehave outside school premises, including online bullying and abuse, schools can apply sanctions to the appropriate pupils. The school behaviour policy should set out how the school will respond to any non-criminal misbehaviour off the school premises or online.

All schools and colleges are also under a legal duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children and must have regard to ‘Keeping children safe in education’ which is the department’s statutory safeguarding guidance. Any criminal behaviour should be appropriately escalated and reported to police.