Online activity is a major source of safeguarding concern that presents continual and varying challenges for schools and teachers.

One of the main challenges is that children are often online outside of school, which can make it difficult for schools to monitor and respond to potential risks and incidents of harm.

This poses the question, when does a school become responsible for online safeguarding issues relating to pupils?

When to act

The first thing to note is schools are not responsible for monitoring pupils’ online activity outside of school.

However, if a safeguarding issue that originates online outside of school then comes “into school” as a safeguarding issue due to that online activity - or the activity is brought to the attention of the school - the school should follow its usual safeguarding procedures.

This includes taking reasonable steps to prevent harm from occurring and responding appropriately when incidents do occur.

Doing all this is not simple, though, and handling safeguarding issues that occur online can be particularly challenging.

The importance of strong policies

As such, schools should have clear policies and procedures in place for dealing with any online safety issues, whether they originate inside or outside a school.

A child protection and safeguarding policy should include mechanisms to identify an issue, intervene and escalate where appropriate, as well as how to involve parents or guardians when necessary.

Best practices for online safety include:

• Regularly reviewing and updating policies and procedures to ensure they are up to date with the latest guidance and legislation.
• Providing regular training for staff.
• Encouraging open communication between staff, pupils and parents.
• Ensuring pupils are aware of the risks associated with online activity.
• Having clear procedures in place for reporting and responding to incidents of online bullying, harassment or other forms of abuse.
• Ensuring policies define key terms relating to online safety issues so the school community is using the same terminology and understands what is meant by these terms.

Furthermore, when an incident occurs, think about the relationship and interaction between relevant school policies, such as child protection and safeguarding, behaviour, online safety, mobile devices, uniform and equal opportunities.

Uniform and Equality Act issues - particularly around protected characteristics - can be a common theme when it comes to cyberbullying, which is why these policies are often engaged by schools in their handling and dealing with the issues raised.

Roles and responsibilities should be clear among staff, trustees and directors. Guidance on how to identify risks and complete a risk assessment can also be useful to ensure consistency in practice.

Involving parents

The need for parental involvement in the process of identifying and responding to potential risks and incidents of harm can also be challenging due to issues including a lack of awareness or understanding, privacy concerns and cultural differences.

Parents or guardians should usually be involved if a child has been involved in an incident of harm online, such as cyberbullying or grooming.

In general, involving parents in online safeguarding issues should be done in a sensitive and supportive way.

To the extent permitted under data protection and other legislation, parents should be kept informed of what is happening and what steps are being taken to address the situation, and should be given the opportunity to ask questions and provide input.

A clear line for staff on how to communicate with parents and the support available from the school is therefore key.

Complex family situations can make this step in the process more challenging, particularly if there are family court orders in place that restrict one parent’s responsibility for the child or access to information about the child’s education.

These types of situations should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Reducing risks

This is an ever-changing, complex area but a robust and clear strategy, alongside a clear policy, should enable staff to feel confident and supported in dealing with issues that originate out of school.

These should be developed with a view to reducing the amount of cyberbullying and other harm that is taking place online.

Vicky Wilson is senior associate in the education team at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson