Annexure G. Online safety and cybercrime
An effective whole setting approach to online safety empowers us all to protect and
educate children and staff in their use of technology and establishes mechanisms to
identify, intervene in, and escalate any concerns where appropriate. It is essential
that children are safeguarded from potentially harmful and inappropriate online
material. It is also important to share with parents how they can keep their children
safe online at home and have procedures in place for remote learning in the event
this should be needed.
Safeguarding children and protecting professionals in early years settings: online
safety considerations for managers - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Safeguarding children and protecting professionals in early years settings: online
safety guidance for practitioners - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The breadth of issues classified within online safety is considerable and ever
evolving, but can be categorised into four areas of risk:
content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate, or harmful content, for example:
pornography, racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicide, anti-Semitism, radicalisation,
extremism, misinformation, disinformation (including fake news) and conspiracy
theories.
contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users; for example:
peer to peer pressure, commercial advertising and adults posing as children or
young adults with the intention to groom or exploit them for sexual, criminal, financial
or other purposes.
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conduct: online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm; for
example, making, sending and receiving explicit images (e.g. consensual and non-
consensual sharing of nudes and semi-nudes and/or pornography, sharing other
explicit images and online bullying,
and commerce: risks such as online gambling, inappropriate advertising, phishing
and or financial scams. If you feel at risk, please report it to the Anti-Phishing
Working Group (https://apwg.org/).
Providers must do all they can to limit children’s exposure to the risks from the
settings IT system and ensure the setting has appropriate filters and monitoring
systems in place and regularly review their effectiveness. Providers should ensure
their setting has appropriate filters and monitoring systems in place and staff receive
training about this induction.
Whilst considering their responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of
children and provide them with a safe environment in which to learn, providers
should consider the age range of their pupils, the number of pupils, how often they
access the IT system and the proportionality of costs vs risks.
The appropriateness of any filters and monitoring systems are a matter for individual
settings and will be informed in part, by the risk assessment required by the Prevent
Duty. The UK Safer Internet Centre has published guidance as to what “appropriate”
filtering and monitoring might look like: UK Safer Internet Centre: appropriate filtering
and monitoring
The Department for Education has published Generative AI: product safety
expectations to support schools to use generative artificial intelligence safely, and
explains how filtering and monitoring requirements apply to the use of generative AI
in education https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/generative-ai-product-
safety-expectations/generative-ai-product-safety-expectations
Cybercrime is criminal activity committed using computers and/or the internet. It is
broadly categorised as either ‘cyber-enabled’ (crimes that can happen off-line but are
enabled at scale and at speed on-line) or ‘cyber dependent’ (crimes that can be
committed only by using a computer). Cyber-dependent crimes include:
• unauthorised access to computers (illegal ‘hacking’), for example accessing a
settings computer network
• ‘Denial of Service’ (Dos or DDoS) attacks or ‘booting’. These are attempts to make
a computer, network or website unavailable by overwhelming it with internet traffic
from multiple sources, and,
• making, supplying or obtaining malware (malicious software) such as viruses,
spyware, ransomware, botnets and Remote Access Trojans with the intent to commit
further offence, including those above.
Older children with particular skills and interest in computing and technology may
inadvertently or deliberately stray into cyber-dependent crime. If there are concerns
about a child in this area, the designated safeguarding lead (or a deputy), should
consider referring into the Cyber Choices programme (a nationwide police
programme supported by the Home Office and led by the National Crime Agency). It
aims to intervene where young people are at risk of committing, or being drawn into,
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low-level cyber-dependent offences and divert them to a more positive use of their
skills and interests. Cyber Choices does not currently cover ‘cyber-enabled’ crime
such as fraud, purchasing of illegal drugs on-line and child sexual abuse and
exploitation, nor other areas of concern such as on-line bullying or general on-line
safety.
Additional advice can be found at:
Cyber Choices
‘NPCC- When to call the Police’ and National Cyber Security Centre -
NCSC.GOV.UK