Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to incorporate educational resources from the National Crime Agency into the National Curriculum in order to inform children about the dangers of online child sexual exploitation.

As part of 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. This includes being taught about what positive, healthy and respectful online relationships look like, the effects of their online actions on others, how to recognise and display respectful behaviour online and where to get help and support for issues that occur online. The guidance emphasises that schools should keep aware of issues such as grooming and sexual exploitation, including coercive and controlling behaviour, and that these should be addressed sensitively and clearly.

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 RSHE statutory guidance is currently under review. The department is looking carefully at responses to the public consultation conducted last year, considering the relevant evidence and discussing with stakeholders, before setting out next steps to make sure the guidance draws from the best available evidence. As part of this process, the department will explore whether additional content is required, including on online harms, and how this can complement the government’s wider actions to tackle harmful behaviour, sexual violence and exploitation.

As with other curriculum subjects, the department does not advise schools on which resources, external speakers or organisations to use, not least because schools operate in a variety of different contexts and have both the expertise and knowledge that makes them best placed to make these decisions. However, in 2023, the department published guidance on teaching online safety in schools, which sets out how to teach about all aspects of internet safety in a coordinated and coherent way across the curriculum, and also includes links to further sources of information, including the National Crime Agency’s resources. This guidance can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-online-safety-in-schools.