Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure children are educated about how to operate safely online.

As part of the statutory relationships and health education in primary schools and relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) in secondary schools, pupils are taught about online safety and harms.

The statutory guidance for relationships education for primary school can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education/relationships-education-primary.

The statutory guidance for RSHE for secondary school can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education/relationships-and-sex-education-rse-secondary.

This guidance includes being taught about what positive, healthy and respectful online relationships look like, the effects of pupils’ online actions on others, how to recognise and display respectful behaviour online, and where to get help and support for issues that occur online.

Teaching about online safety also complements the computing curriculum, which covers the principles of online safety at all key stages, with progression in the content to reflect the different and escalating risks that pupils face. The statutory guidance for the computing curriculum can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study.

The guidance ‘Teaching online safety in schools’ sets out how to teach about all aspects of internet safety in a coordinated and coherent way across the curriculum, and can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-online-safety-in-schools.

The department is currently reviewing the RSHE statutory guidance. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has been clear that children’s wellbeing must be at the heart of this guidance for schools and as such the government will look carefully at the consultation responses, discuss with stakeholders and consider the relevant evidence before setting out next steps. As part of the review, the department will consider whether additional or revised content should be included in the guidance, including content regarding online safety and harm.

The Curriculum and Assessment Review is also looking at the curriculum as a whole and how to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life. The government‘s ambition is for a broad, rich and cutting-edge curriculum that equips children and young people with the essential knowledge and skills required to thrive as citizens, in work and throughout life.

In addition, the statutory ‘Keeping children safe in education’ guidance which all schools and colleges must have regard to when drawing up and implementing their own safeguarding policies has been strengthened with regards to online safety in recent years. Governing bodies and proprietors should ensure online safety is a running and interrelated theme whilst devising and implementing their whole school or college approach to safeguarding and related policies and procedures, including doing all that they reasonably can to limit children’s exposure to harmful online content on the school’s or college’s IT system.