Online-safety curriculum progression and lesson guidance

This guidance is for maintained and academy primary and secondary schools in England that provide online-safety education. Schools should adapt content to the relevant key stage, age, developmental stage, curriculum context, pupil needs and safeguarding arrangements.

Planning principles

Plan online-safety teaching across relationships education, relationships and sex education, health education, computing and citizenship, using age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate content.

Schools may consult the Education for a Connected World framework as an optional source of age-specific advice about the online knowledge and skills pupils should have the opportunity to develop at different stages of their lives.

Teaching should help pupils make sensible decisions to stay safe while making clear that abuse is never the fault of a child and that victim blaming is always wrong.

Age restrictions and digital consent

Teach pupils why some online activities have age restrictions, why age verification exists and how age restrictions can warn that content may be disturbing or unsuitable for younger viewers.

Explain the risks of accessing age-inappropriate content and what the digital age of consent means, including the stated minimum age of 13 at which young people can agree to share information and sign up to social media without parental consent under the General Data Protection Regulations.

Digital footprints, sharing and illegal content

Teach pupils what a digital footprint is, how it develops and how it may affect future prospects such as university and job applications.

Explain how cookies work, how content can be shared, tagged and traced, and why it can be difficult to remove information, comments or images after they have been shared.

Teach pupils about the risk of identity theft or targeted approaches from fraudsters using information shared online. Explain, in an age-appropriate way, what online content or conduct is illegal, including youth-produced sexual imagery, extreme pornography, terrorist content and the possession, creation or sharing of explicit images of a child, even where the image was created by a child.

Scams, phishing, fraud and passwords

Teach pupils how to look out for fake URLs and websites, recognise secure website markings and assess the sources of emails.

Explain the risks of entering information into an insecure website and the risks of scam emails and fake websites, including attempts to obtain data, money or images.

Teach pupils what to do if they are harmed, targeted or groomed through a fake website or scam email, who they can approach and what support may be available. Include the risks of offers, advertising and fake product sales that are too good to be true.

Personal data, privacy and data rights

Teach pupils that online platforms and search engines gather personal data, including through cookies and sources that may appear neutral, such as games or surveys.

Explain how and why online companies may share personal data, including for targeted marketing by email and text. Teach pupils how to limit the data companies can gather, including paying attention to boxes that are ticked when accessing a game or app for the first time.

Teach pupils what to do if something goes wrong, such as when data is hacked, and that acting quickly is essential. Explain the rights children have regarding their data, including particular protections for children under the General Data Protection Regulations.

Online abuse, grooming and personal safety

Use age-appropriate teaching to help pupils recognise and respond to online abuse, fake profiles, grooming, live-streaming risks and harmful online challenges. Include how to seek help, report concerns and disengage from unsafe interactions.

Make clear that a child who is abused is never responsible for the abuse and that victim blaming is always wrong.

Include content that may incite violence where relevant to pupils’ age, developmental stage, curriculum context and safeguarding arrangements.

Pornography and online media literacy

In secondary relationships and sex education, where relevant, teach that sexually explicit material presents a distorted picture of sexual behaviours and that pornography is not an accurate portrayal of adult sexual relationships.

Explain that viewing pornography can lead to skewed beliefs about sex and, in some circumstances, may normalise violent sexual behaviour. Teach that not all people featured in pornographic material are doing so willingly, including in cases involving revenge pornography or people trafficked into sex work.

Persuasive design and privacy controls

Teach pupils that many devices, apps and games are designed to keep users online for longer than they may have planned or wanted.

Explain that many games and platforms are businesses whose primary driver may be to encourage users to remain online, spend money or generate advertising revenue. Include how notifications can pull users back online.

Where relevant, teach pupils about targeted content, clickbait and privacy controls, including the limits of privacy settings and how online design can influence behaviour and the information shared.

Progression and adaptation

Sequence learning so that explanations, examples and activities are appropriate to pupils’ age and developmental stage. Select content according to the curriculum context and the school’s safeguarding arrangements.

Apply the pornography content only where relevant to secondary relationships and sex education. Adapt all other content to the needs of the pupils and the circumstances in which online-safety teaching is provided.