Looking at online safety resources this RSE day

This article was written by Childnet, a partner in the UK Safer Internet Centre. 

At Childnet we believe that all young people deserve Relationship and Sex Education that teaches them about healthy relationships and positive sexual health. Over the last few years we have been working on some resources to help schools cover RSE in relation to the online space.

We know how important it is that schools have access to practical, thoughtful and helpful resources to help them teach RSE, especially in the context of young people’s relationships and experiences online. From September 2020, the new Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) curriculum becomes statutory in England. We want to help ensure that teachers have all the support they need. In order to respond to this need, we created a PSHE Toolkit for use with young people in KS3.  The Toolkit, ‘Myth vs Reality’, focusses on pornography, healthy relationships and body image online, looking at critical thinking around these topics and providing teachers with practical help and advice for young people. This toolkit is an extension of our hugely successful PSHE accredited toolkit ‘Crossing the Line’.

You can also see our Hot Topic on pornography for professionals working with children.

We created Step Up, Speak Up as a practical campaign toolkit to address the issue of online sexual harassment amongst young people aged 13 – 17 years. The toolkit provides a range of resources including video content for young people and the professionals who work with them, including teachers, pastoral teams, senior school leadership and police forces. 

This toolkit specifically focuses on peer-to-peer online sexual harassment taking place between young people. Online sexual harassment is unwanted sexual conduct on any digital platform and it is recognised as a form of sexual violence.

Online sexual harassment encompasses a wide range of behaviours that use digital content (images, videos, posts, messages, pages) on a variety of different platforms (private or public).

You can also see our Hot Topic on online sexual harassment for professionals working with children.

RSE Day is on 25 June 2020. It is an annual celebration of excellent Relationships and Sex Education that educates children and young people about healthy relationships and positive sexual health.

RSE Day encourages schools and the wider community to get involved. It asks everyone to consider their role in promoting healthy relationships and positive sexual health – whether as a parent/carer, an educator, a faith leader, a councillor, a health practitioner, a friend or family member.

Find out more at https://www.sexeducationforum.org.uk/resources/rse-day-25-june-2020