Student safeguarding: how to teach cyber safety

More and more teachers and schools are adopting digital devices and practices, transforming how we teach and learn. Used responsibly, these can accelerate learning, foster creativity and unlock opportunities.

However, young people are at risk from inappropriate or malicious online content and behaviour, especially as they lack the critical skills, maturity and experience to identify threats. According to Unicef, over one-third of young people in 30 countries have experienced cyberbullying, while 80% in 25 countries have felt at risk of sexual abuse or exploitation online.*

This means it’s never been more important to teach cyber safety – the safe use of digital technologies and behaviour – to protect children, their education and your school’s reputation.

In this post, we’ll look at what cyber safety is before sharing 7 ways to promote cyber safety at home and in the classroom.

What is cyber safety?

Cyber safety refers to the practices and measures that help protect young people from the potential harms and risks of digital technologies and online interactions: cyberbullying, phishing, exposure to inappropriate or harmful content, grooming, privacy and data breaches or screen addiction.

Protecting children from these risks at a critical phase of their emotional and cognitive development is essential. So, let’s take a look at how educators can take preventative steps to ensure the cyber safety of students.

Check out our recent post to learn more about whether schools should avoid screentime.

6 ways to promote cyber safety for students

1. Teach students about their digital footprint

Students should know that everything they do online leaves a trail. Apps and websites use tracking technologies to gather information about user behaviour. This builds up a profile so that users can be targeted with advertising, etc.

As this data can be shared, it can be hard to delete later, which can affect future prospects. Students need to think: do they really want future employers seeing Instagram posts of them misbehaving on a school trip?

Games like Digital Footprint Bingo help students see how different online activities contribute to their footprint. The game works by crossing off squares like ‘posted a picture on social media,’ ‘used public Wi-Fi,’ ‘shared a video,’ ‘commented on a post,’ etc. Afterwards, you can show students how to safeguard their personal information by adjusting privacy settings to limit what they share.

2. Explain how online activities can impact wellbeing

While digital devices offer many benefits, excessive use can negatively impact students’ self-image, mental health and relationships. Explain to students that images they see online (such as influencer selfies) may be enhanced using filters and photoshop, and that these ‘perfect’ representations are often unrealistic and have a negative impact on body confidence.

A healthy balance of online and offline activities is important, as excessive screen time can lead to anxiety and feelings of isolation – even addiction. Encourage your students to think about whether they’re genuinely enjoying being online or doing it because of peer pressure or fear of missing out.

3. Explain age restrictions and harmful or inappropriate content

Many online activities have age restrictions to protect younger users from being exposed to potentially harmful content like pornography, ads for alcohol and tobacco, or online predators. Talk with your students about why social media networks therefore require them to verify their age when creating a profile.

Make sure they’re aware that the age of digital consent is at least 13, so they can’t sign up to social media or share information online without parental consent before this. Clarify, though, that being 13 doesn’t mean they’ll be mentally prepared to evaluate all the content they may see online.

4. Help them recognise suspicious behaviour

Online abuse takes many forms, including sexual harassment, bullying, trolling, intimidation and hate crimes. So, it’s important for your students to be able to identify inappropriate behaviour.

Teach them to recognise the signs of grooming, like someone trying to isolate them from friends and family, asking for inappropriate photos, or being in a hurry to meet in person. They should also know how to tell when a person, platform or business wants their personal information for a legitimate reason or not. For example, it’s normal for a social media platform to ask your age before you create a profile, but not for someone you just met in a chatroom to want your address.

Tell students that, instead of engaging with or going along with these things, they should document them, disengage and tell an adult or the authorities.

5. Foster digital and media literacy

To safely navigate the online world, students need to develop critical skills to assess and understand:

• Why people create fake websites, emails or profiles: For example, to engage in fraud or grooming. Teach them to spot red flags like insecure or misspelt ULRs and text, offers that seem too good to be true, and profiles that don’t ring true. Like a ‘celebrity’ with thousands of followers but no verified account, or a major business with no website.
• Persuasion techniques designed to manipulate: Online content often tries to make people believe something or mislead them by eliciting strong emotional reactions instead of providing factual information. Companies also use techniques like perceived scarcity or FOMO to persuade people to buy something. Teach students about ‘persuasive design,’ too, like apps, games and social media using notifications, lights, colours, etc. to keep users on them longer.
• How to evaluate online content and prevent spread of misinformation: For example, by fact-checking or looking for signs of bias or non-credible sources. Teach students to pause and check things out before sharing content, especially if it seems sensational. Teach them about clickbait and paid content that appears at the top of search results of feeds and how people and companies use it to draw people in. Read more about teaching your students to recognise fake news.
• How to recognise extremist or criminal behaviour and content: Warning signs include language that dehumanises or demonises certain groups or people, glorification of violence, extreme views and attempts to recruit or radicalise people. Warn students that encouraging or sharing this content may be a criminal offence.

6. Teach digital citizenship

Good digital citizens know how to use technology in a safe, responsible and respectful way. Ensure students understand that the same standards of behaviour and respect for others apply online as well as offline. Also, how avatars or usernames can make you feel ‘invisible’ online, making it easier to treat people in ways you never would face-to-face.

Discuss things like ‘mob mentality’ and how unacceptable behaviour or language can be dismissed as light hearted when that is not the case. And how sharing things like sexual photos without consent can harm someone’s wellbeing.

Explain to students how content can be misinterpreted without the context of face-to-face interactions, leading to intensified emotions, arguments and ‘cancel culture.’ Role play situations featuring positive, constructive online interactions. For example, being open to others' opinions, willing to learn, disengaging from negative interactions or responding with curiosity and empathy, not anger.

Cyber safety: With great power comes great responsibility

Young people have increasing freedom online, so it’s important they understand the dangers of clicking, chatting, or sharing content that can be harmful to them, their peers or your institution.

Build digital safeguarding into your curriculum and create procedures for incident reporting and response, including lists of trusted adults and support services. Share these with families, teachers and students to help ensure a safe, positive online environment at school and at home.

Further reading

Stay up to date with the latest discussions about the internet and education.

Read Busting the myths that surround online learning and Choice and innovation: learning and assessment approaches for a new generation.