All schools will be required to put in place strengthened measures to protect children from harm online – including cyber bullying, pornography and the risk of radicalisation. The DfE published draft proposals on this to schools for a consultation process which ended on 16th February 2016.
Under these proposals, all schools will:
- need to have appropriate filters and monitoring systems, so that no child can access harmful content via the school’s IT systems and concerns can be spotted quickly
- be required to ensure that they teach their pupils about safeguarding, including online
Full details on these proposals can be access here. It was particularly interesting to read the implication that schools need to do more to keep children safe when using online services at home. The OSA fully supports these proposals and is keen to support schools in ensuring their pupils are appropriately safeguarded against the ever-changing risks they face in the online world.