Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on educating children and young people on online trolling; and what support is available to victims of such abuse in relation to (i) psychological wellbeing and (ii) building resilience.

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has not had specific discussions with the Secretary of State for Education (Damian Hinds) around educating children and young people on online trolling. However, the Department for Education is working closely with the Department of Digital Culture, Media and Sport to ensure that teaching children about online safety is considered as part of the work to introduce compulsory Relationships Education in primary schools, Relationships and Sex Education in secondary schools and to consider making Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education compulsory in all schools.

In order to improve the support available to those who receive abuse online, we are working with the Department for Digital Culture, Media and Sport to support the Online Harms White Paper. This includes potential legislative action around improved transparency reporting – which includes companies reporting exact figures of how many users who report abuse are signposted on to help – and a code of practice for social media companies.

To transform mental health services for children and young people’s we are making £1.4 billion available. We are also improving our offer of mental health support for all children and young people through the Green Paper, which is supported by a further £300 million.