An increasing amount of daily life now takes place online, especially for children and young people who have grown up in a digital world. Being connected offers many advantages: it can make everyday tasks easier, support learning and work, provide access to entertainment, and help people build and maintain relationships with friends, family and others.
However, alongside these benefits come challenges and potential risks. While these are not limited to the online environment, they can often feel more widespread and harder to identify in digital spaces. Developing an awareness of these risks, alongside the knowledge and skills to manage them, is essential for staying safe online and reducing the likelihood of harm.
It is also important for pupils to understand what respectful and responsible behaviour looks like in online spaces, both in terms of how others act and how they themselves should behave.
What are the risks to online safety?
When considering online risks, people often think first about the most serious harms and harmful behaviours, such as:
- Bullying and social exclusion
- Sexual exploitation
- Grooming
- Abuse
- Radicalisation
- Exposure to inappropriate or distressing content
- Hate speech and propaganda
- Misinformation and disinformation
- Scams and fraud
- Gambling
- Deepfakes (digitally altered images, videos, or audio that place a person’s likeness into misleading contexts)
Alongside these more overt risks, there are other factors linked to online activity that can negatively affect wellbeing and participation in daily life. These may include:
- Reduced connection with offline experiences
- Excessive focus on social media
- Overdependence on digital technology
- Difficulty distinguishing between authentic and curated content
- Impacts on self-esteem and self-image
Online Safety in School
There are many opportunities to embed online safety education across the curriculum. This includes PSHE, relationships and sex education (RSE), citizenship, and computing, as well as wider curriculum areas such as media literacy in English.
As the digital landscape continues to evolve—with new apps, platforms and technologies emerging regularly—it can be challenging to keep up with current trends. For this reason, it is important to focus on developing the core knowledge and skills that enable pupils to stay safe online, regardless of the platform or device they are using.
These include:
- Critically evaluating online information and content
- Recognising different methods of influence and persuasion
- Understanding the importance of consistent behaviour both online and offline
- Recognising why individuals may behave differently in digital environments
- Identifying a range of online risks and knowing how to respond appropriately
- Knowing when and how to access support