To ask the Minister of Education to detail how Relationship and Sexuality Education addresses (i) online sexual harassment; (ii) image-based abuse; and (iii) misogynistic content, encountered by young people on social media.

The Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) evaluates the quality of Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. Council for the Curriculum Examinations and Assessment (CCEA)’s RSE Hub provides free, highquality resources, including materials on violence against women and girls. The nonstatutory CCEA RSE Progression Framework offers a pathway from Foundation Stage to post16, outlining appropriate topics for each Key Stage and directing schools to further guidance. It also includes information on domestic and sexual violence and abuse.

(AQW 38707/22-27)

CCEA provides a wide range of ageappropriate RSE resources which includes lesson plans, activities and short films to support a preventative curriculum. These cover topics such as violence against women and girls (VAWG), domestic and sexual abuse, coercive control, online harassment and misogyny, and are available on the CCEA RSE Hub.

Key areas include:

Consent:Six postprimary units explore communication, decisionmaking, risk, myths, misogyny, gender stereotypes, and the consequences of nonconsensual behaviour.

Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse:Eight units cover types of abuse, its impact, online abuse, the law, VAWG (including SEN), and the Active Bystander approach. A new unit on upskirting, downblousing, cyberflashing and sextortion will be added, with further units on male victims and masculinity in development.

Healthy Relationships:Resources help pupils recognise positive, unhealthy and romantic relationships, set boundaries, understand responsibilities, and gender issues in relationships.

Internet Safety:Materials support teaching about online risks and how to protect yourself online, challenging harmful behaviour, and relevant laws. Topics include cyberbullying, sexting and the impact of pornography, with cyberflashing and sextortion addressed in the Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse section.

The CCEA RSE Progression Framework provides a nonstatutory pathway from Foundation Stage to post16, outlining suitable topics, including Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse and VAWG. It also links to the Department of Health’s Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy and The Executive Office’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategic Framework.

Coercive control is addressed at Key Stage 4 and revisited post16.(AQW 38708/22-27 & AQW 38710/22-27)

CCEA provides webinars to support teachers, featuring expertise from organisations working in domestic violence, consent and online abuse.

With support through the Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy Programme fund 2025/26, CCEA is currently working with my Department to plan an event for school leaders in March 2026. The event is aimed at highlighting the role of leadership in embedding a whole school approach to tackling this issue at a school level through the promotion of healthy relationships, alongside showcasing best practice to shape and inform interventions that can be of use to schools when addressing these key issues of relationships, consent, sexual violence and abuse.

(AQW 38709/22-27)

No assessment has been undertaken by my Department; however, as part of Northern Ireland Executive strategy on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, The Executive Office may undertake monitoring to fully understand the impact on attitudes over time and to determine whether there has been a reduction in harmful behaviour as part of the overall strategy. (AQW 38711/22-27)