Internet safety and cyberbullying

Guidance and resources to help you tackle cyberbullying and promote e-safety

Local guidance and resources

National guidance and resources

The DfE provides general advice on preventing and tackling bullying alongside specific cyberbullying guidance for schools and parents/carers.  To access these publications, click on the links below:

Ofsted

To access the latest Ofsted School Inspection Handbook,

Ofsted will be judging all settings on the extent to which:

  • Relationships among learners and staff reflect a positive and respectful culture;
  • Leaders, teachers and learners create an environment where bullying, peer-on-peer abuse of discrimination are not tolerated; and
  • Staff deal with issues quickly and effectively, and do not allow them to spread.

Safeguarding

As well as understanding Ofsted’s inspecting guidance, schools should be familiar with relevant, including statutory, guidance on safeguarding when working to prevent and tackle cyberbullying:

Keeping Children Safe in Education emphasises the importance of effectively tackling bullying (including cyberbullying), teaching children to stay safe online, and ensuring they don’t access inappropriate material. It also states that peer on peer abuse, including 'sexting', should be reflected in the schools’ child protection policies and that sexual violence and sexual harassment should not be passed off as ‘banter’ or ‘part of growing up’ or ‘having a laugh’. Schools should be aware that children with SEND are more likely to be bullied and may not show this in their behaviour.

Referring to resources and guidance on this page will help you to meet these requirements.

Information and support

There is a wealth of information available to support schools, colleges and parents to keep children safe online. The following list is not exhaustive but should provide a useful starting point:

Organisation/Resource What it does/provides  
thinkuknow CEOP resources tailored to different age groups and for parents/carers.  
UK Safer Internet Centre UK Safer Internet Centre Professional helpline 0844 381 4772.  
SWGfL

Includes a template for setting out online safety policies:

  
Internet Matters Help for parents on how to keep their children safe online.  
ParentZone Help for parents on how to keep their children safe online.  
Childnet Cyberbullying Guidance for schools on cyberbullying.  
UKCIS

The UK Council for Internet Safety’s website provides:

  
PSHE Association NSPCC advice for schools and colleges.  
commonsensemedia Independent reviews, age ratings, & other information about all types of media for children and their parents.  
Searching screening and confiscation Guidance to schools on searching children in schools and confiscating items such as mobile phones.  
LGfL Advice and resources from the London Grid for Learning.  

Sexting/youth-produced sexualised imagery

Oxfordshire County Council, the OSCB and Thames Valley Police all recommend that schools and settings refer to Sexting in Schools and Colleges, guidance from the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (2016) to support them with preventing and managing sexting.

Please see Oxfordshire’s Sexting Resource Pack 2019 (pdf format, 354Kb) for further links and resources to support you with managing sexting.

Further links and information to support your online safety work:

Oxfordshire:

National and international:

  • Get Safe Online  provides advice on how people can use the internet confidently, safely and securely. 
  • NSPCC Share Aware  
  • Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is the UK Safer Internet Centre's hotline for reporting three specific types of online criminal content: child sexual abuse content (hosted globally) ; obscene adult content (hosted only in the UK); non-photographic images of child sexual abuse (such as computer-generated images) (hosted only in the UK)
  • Online Compass This site provides an e-safety audit tool for youth settings. This site is provided by the Safer Internet Centre 
  • UK council for Child Internet Safety  This is a voluntary organisation that brings together over 200 organisations including the Department for Education, CEOP, Childnet, etc. 
  • UK Safer Internet Centre   provides e-safety tips, advice and resources to help children and young people stay safe on the internet. 
  • UK Safer Internet Centre professional helpline helpline@saferinternet.org.uk 0844 381 4772   Support with all aspects of digital and online issues such as social networking sites, cyber-bullying, sexting, online gaming and child protection online. The helpline aims to resolve issues professionals face about themselves, such as protecting professional identity and reputation, as well as young people in relation to online safety.