Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to help support schools to educate parents on safeguarding children in respect to online content.

Keeping children safe is an absolute priority for this government, and schools play a critical role in this.

The department’s statutory safeguarding guidance, ‘Keeping children safe in education’ makes clear that schools and colleges should adopt a whole-school approach to safeguarding. This includes considering how online safety is reflected in relevant school policies and processes, and strategies for engaging parents in conversations about online safety. It also signposts to resources specifically aimed at parents to help them keep their children safe online.

Alongside this, the department is conducting a research project to help us understand what more we can do to support parents to keep their children safe online.