Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to educate schoolchildren about the dangers of radicalisation ideologies online in rural areas.

It is important that children and young people have the appropriate skills to remain resilient to misinformation and disinformation, and to extremist content. ‘Keeping children safe in education’ is statutory guidance which provides schools and colleges with robust information on how to protect pupils and students online.

Online safety is also taught through compulsory national curriculum subjects such as relationships, sex and health education, computing and citizenship education. These subjects teach pupils a number of skills relating to staying safe online as well as ensuring that pupils are digitally literate, including being able to effectively evaluate and apply information online.

The department publishes comprehensive advice and has made a range of resources freely available on our Educate Against Hate website, supporting teachers across all sectors to educate children and young people about the risks of all types of extremism and radicalisation. We also have a team of regional co-ordinators who work directly with education institutions in England to provide advice, support and training to ensure providers are well equipped to prevent children and young people from being drawn into terrorism.