To ask the Minister of Education what programmes exist within secondary level education to raise awareness of cyber bullying and social media exploitation.

The Department takes these issues very seriously and issued an e-Safety Guidance Circular to all schools in December 2013. It stated that ‘eSafety must be built into the delivery of the curriculum’ and recommended that schools use external expertise, where appropriate, to help address these complex issues. It is, however, a matter for each school to determine which programmes and resources best suit their particular needs.

All secondary schools promote the personal development of pupils as part of the topic ‘Learning for Life and Work’ (LLW). Bullying/cyber-bullying and e-safety are widely covered during LLW. LLW resources for schools have been developed by CCEA, which include ‘safety and managing risk’ in the real world and online. Other materials on specific e-safety issues have been prepared and made available to all teachers through the Classroom 2000 (C2K) network.

Awareness raising programmes, training and resources are provided by a range of organisations such as the PSNI and the NI Anti-Bullying Forum. Voluntary organisations also support schools by providing talks to pupils and parents on these issues.

As part of “Safer Internet Day 2015”, a toolkit was provided to schools which included information, advice and lesson plans on issues including sexting, using webcams, using Social Networks, inappropriate content and chatting with strangers online.

Specialist training and support are also available to schools via the Education and Library Boards’ child protection, education welfare and behaviour support services; and from the Child Protection Support Service to Schools (CPSSS).