Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to include online safety education into the national curriculum in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.

As part of the statutory relationships and health education (RHE) 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 RHE statutory guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education/relationships-education-primary, and the RSHE statutory guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education/relationships-and-sex-education-rse-secondary.

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 is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-computing-programmes-of-study.

The RSHE statutory guidance is currently under review. The department is looking carefully at responses to the public the 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 content regarding online safety and harm.

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 the harmful online content on the school’s or college’s IT system.