Teaching children how to be safe online in an ever changing digital society

My experience

After graduating from my BSc undergraduate degree in psychology and child development in 2020 at Staffordshire University, I decided to complete my Primary PGCE with QTS status at Manchester Metropolitan University. Voluntary experience in primary schools has always occupied a lot of my time, so going on to do a PGCE was a great way to solidify my knowledge and experience in this area. This experience varied and included supporting school clubs such as choir and sport, supporting on school trips and reading with children and supporting small groups. 

This experience gave me the skills to work towards my PGCE in primary education. My experience in primary schools has made me particularly aware of the increase in primary aged children owning their own digital devices between 2010 and 2022, including smart phones and tablets and the computing curriculum that accompanies these experiences.  

Teaching online safety 

The current National Curriculum in England primarily focuses on children's practical use of digital technology including understanding data and coding, with three of the four main outcomes describing these areas. The fourth main outcome of the curriculum describes children becoming 'responsible, competent, confident and creative users of technology.' 

This outcome focuses on children keeping information private online, behaving appropriately and being able to report concerns that they have while online. However, the curriculum doesn't appear to look any further at how children are able to cope following exposure to a risky or dangerous situation online, particularly if they become distressed. 

From my time spent in primary school classrooms, I have seen some of the ways 'e-safety' is taught. Much of this involves teaching children the types of things to avoid online such as not speaking to strangers online, and often finishes with the children creating a poster or information booklet about online safety.  

Deciding my research area 

When I finished my undergraduate degree, I was a research assistant for a project at Staffordshire University; this gave me my first experience of research outside of my degree. Following this, I knew that I would apply for a PhD in psychology at Staffordshire University as a next step and when this opportunity came, I had many discussions with my undergraduate project supervisor, Dr Sarah Rose, about the types of things I would like to research. 

The ideas primarily centred around social media, online safety and child development. Sarah then introduced me to the concept of digital resilience. After some literature searching in this area, I found that digital resilience had three core elements: Recognising online risks, managing online risks and recovering from online risks. I then started to consider the teaching of online safety that I had seen in primary schools, as well as the aims of the curriculum and concluded that children were lacking the recovery aspect of digital resilience. 

With so many children having access to smart phones, games consoles, tablets and many other types of technology, it is likely that they will be exposed to various types of online risks regardless of how many times they are told to avoid some of these risks. Many of these risks may be things that the children may not be aware of until they occur. The teaching of digital resilience skills would therefore aim to equip children with the tools that they need to respond appropriately and cope with online risks when they occur.  

My PhD research

The overarching question for my thesis is: How can teachers support children's understanding and development of digital resilience? To address this question, I aim to carry out four studies. Currently, I am writing up my systematic review that aimed to analyse pre-existing interventions for their effectiveness at promoting digital resilience to children aged 18 or younger. This also included coding for 'behaviour change techniques' to understand the practical methods used to carry out these interventions. 

Alongside this, I have just begun recruiting for my second study. This study aims to understand children's and teachers' perceptions and experiences of online safety and how this is taught in primary schools. In this study, Year 6 and Year 7 children will complete a questionnaire, some of these children will then be asked to take part in a focus group. Primary school teachers with recent Year 6 teaching experience will also be asked to complete a questionnaire and invited to take part in an interview. 

Study 3 will then focus on co-creating an intervention with Year 7 children and primary school teachers to target digital resilience in Year 5 and Year 6 children. Study 4 will then pilot test this intervention with Year 6 children and seek feedback from the children and their teachers about the effectiveness of the intervention. 

If you are interested in my research and would like to find out more, or would like some more information about participating, please get in touch using my X/Twitter profile or email address.