Your responsibilities
1. Monitor your school's online safety programme
Make sure:
- Your school is teaching children how to stay safe online (and that this teaching is adapted for vulnerable children, victims of abuse and pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, where necessary)
- All staff undergo safeguarding and child protection training which includes online safety
- Online safety is a running and interrelated theme while your school leaders devise and implement a whole school approach to safeguarding and related policies/procedures
- This means considering how your school leaders reflect online safety in:
- Policies
- The curriculum
- Teacher training
- The designated safeguarding leads's (DSL's) responsibilities, and
- Parental engagement
This is set out in paragraphs 124, 127 and 135 of statutory safeguarding guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2022.
KCSIE refers to schools having a 'whole school approach' to online safety, and this non-statutory guidance also recommends this. It means your school should consider all aspects of school life, such as your ethos, environment and partnerships with parents.
KCSIE suggests schools use this free online safety self-review tool from 360 Safe to review their approach to online safety.
2. Ask if your online filters are fit for purpose
Make sure your school has appropriate filtering and monitoring systems in place to protect pupils when they access the internet at school – this is covered in paragraphs 141 and 142 of KCSIE 2022.
This means doing all you reasonably can to protect children from harmful:
- Content, such as pornography, fake news and racist or extremist views
- Contact, like adults posing as children or engagement with commercial advertising
- Conduct, such as making, sending or receiving explicit images, or online bullying
- Commerce, such as online gambling, phishing scams, and inappropriate advertising
Consider whether your school's filtering and monitoring systems are appropriate in light of:
- The age range of your pupils
- The number of pupils at your school
- How often pupils access the IT system
- Costs vs risks
Tip: your school was already required to carry out an online safety risk assessment under the Prevent duty. That will at least partly inform the appropriateness of the filters and monitoring systems at your school.
Find out more about how you can help to make your whole school more cyber-secure with our article.
3. Watch out for 'over blocking'
Your school should take care that its filters and monitoring systems do not place unreasonable restrictions on what children can be taught regarding online teaching and safeguarding, according to KCSIE 2022 (paragraph 134).
The UK Safer Internet Centre has guidance for schools on filtering and monitoring. It includes:
- Content areas that schools should focus their filtering system controls on
- Principles for school filtering systems
- A guide for appropriate levels of monitoring
- Checklists for filtering and monitoring providers to 'self certify' their systems
Questions to ask
Ask your school leaders the following questions to make sure your school has good online safety policies and practices, and that you're adopting a 'whole school approach' to online safety:
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How do our school's policies and practices incorporate principles of online safety? How do we make sure everyone understands them, including pupils and staff? |
For example:
Good answers should include:
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| How are we getting parents and pupils involved in activities that promote online safety? |
For example:
Good answers should include:
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| How are we keeping up with new and evolving online risks? |
Your school should review and communicate safety principles on a regular basis. How are we:
Good answers should include:
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| How are we reinforcing our online safety principles? |
Are we taking appropriate and consistent action every time a pupil:
Good answers should include:
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| Do we consistently model our online safety principles? |
Your school should set expectations for pupil behaviour when they go online at school, whether they're logged into school computers or their own devices. Do we:
If you're struggling with parent behaviour online, read our article to prevent and deal with incidents. Good answers should include:
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| How is online safety integrated into our curriculum? |
Your school can decide how to embed online safety into its curriculum. You may find the DfE's guidance useful for monitoring your school's curriculum – see pages 9 to 23 for a table that identifies some issues pupils may be facing and where these could be covered in the curriculum. Ask school leaders:
Good answers should include:
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| How are we meeting the needs of vulnerable pupils? |
Some pupils are more vulnerable to online risks than others. This includes pupils with:
Ask:
Good answers should highlight that interventions look beyond just the reported issue and consider the child's:
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For more details on what to look for when questioning school leaders on online safety policies, please see this guidance from the UK Council for Internet Safety.
More resources
- CEOP Education (formerly ThinkUKnow) – online safety education programme from the National Crime Agency, which aims to safeguard children from sexual abuse and exploitation
- National Centre for Computing Education – supports the teaching of computing education in schools and colleges in England, giving teachers the subject knowledge and skills to establish computing as a core part of the curriculum
- Education for a Connected World – describes the digital knowledge and skills that children and young people should develop at different stages
- UK Chief Medical Officers' advice on screen time and social media use