Online Stress

To nurture the skills of resilience is key to providing young people with the ability to cope with stress, adversity, failure and challenges. Resilience is evident when young people have a greater ability to “bounce back” when faced with difficulties and achieve positive outcomes.

Resilience empowers the individual to recognise the positives and negatives of social media and be aware of unhealthy messages and how it can affect an individual and their family/friends. Resilience enables an individual to use social media correctly and to challenge or provide support to others who don’t.

The introduction of statutory requirements for Relationships Education, RSE and Health Education in September 2020 has rightly put a strong emphasis on children and young people having an entitlement to learning about online relationships and internet safety. Children and young people now navigate seamlessly between the online and offline worlds and need to understand the benefits and risks of their internet use. In addition to these newly statutory areas of PSHE, schools are also required to deliver a Computing curriculum which should be planned alongside the PSHE content to ensure relevant learning opportunities are offered cohesively to meet pupil need.

Social networking is hugely varied and popular. Many young people are sophisticated in the way they use social media apps and websites, tailoring their communication for different audiences, and accessing them from a range of devices.

But social media, like all forms of public communication, comes with some risks. By helping the individual to understand what the risks are, schools can play a big part in enabling pupils to understand and balance benefit and risk.

FOMO (fear of missing out)

FOMO is an anxiety or insecurity over the possibility of missing out on something as an event or opportunity. It is often aroused by posts seen on social media. This social anxiety is characterised by a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing. FOMO refers to the feeling or perception that an individual may have that others are having more fun, living better lives, or experiencing better things than they are. It involves a deep sense of envy and affects self-esteem. FOMO can lead to performance anxiety and depression and can result in an individual becoming less efficient and more disconnected with others.

Source – Young Minds

NSPCC Kids Safety Net Campaign 2023

By the end of primary school students should

that people sometimes behave differently online, including by pretending to be someone they are not.
that the same principles apply to online relationships as to face-to-face relationships, including the importance of respect for others online including when we are anonymous.
the rules and principles for keeping safe online, how to recognise risks, harmful content and contact, and how to report them.
how to critically consider their online friendships and sources of information including awareness of the risks associated with people they have never met.
how information and data is shared and used online.
that for most people the internet is an integral part of life and has many benefits.
about the benefits of rationing time spent online, the risks of excessive time spent on electronic devices and the impact of positive and negative content online on their own and others’ mental and physical wellbeing.
how to consider the effect of their online actions on others and know how to recognise and display respectful behaviour online and the importance of keeping personal information private
why social media, some computer games and online gaming, for example, are age restricted.
that the internet can also be a negative place where online abuse, trolling, bullying and harassment can take place, which can have a negative impact on mental health.
how to be a discerning consumer of information online including understanding that information, including that from search engines, is ranked, selected and targeted.
where and how to report concerns and get support with issues online.

Source: Relationships Education RSE and Health Education (DfE) Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education guidance (publishing.service.gov.uk)

By the end of secondary school students should

their rights, responsibilities and opportunities online, including that the same expectations of behaviour apply in all contexts, including online.
about online risks, including that any material someone provides to another has the potential to be shared online and the difficulty of removing potentially compromising material placed online.
not to provide material to others that they would not want shared further and not to share personal material which is sent to them.
what to do and where to get support to report material or manage issues online.
the impact of viewing harmful content.
that specifically sexually explicit material e.g. pornography presents a distorted picture of sexual behaviours, can damage the way people see themselves in relation to others and negatively affect how they behave towards sexual partners.
that sharing and viewing indecent images of children (including those created by children) is a criminal offence which carries severe penalties including jail.
how information and data is generated, collected, shared and used online.
the similarities and differences between the online world and the physical world, including: the impact of unhealthy or obsessive comparison with others online (including through setting unrealistic expectations for body image), how people may curate a specific image of their life online, over-reliance on online relationships including social media, the risks related to online gambling including the accumulation of debt, how advertising and information is targeted at them and how to be a discerning consumer of information online.
how to identify harmful behaviours online (including bullying, abuse or harassment) and how to report, or find support, if they have been affected by those behaviours.

Source: Relationships Education RSE and Health Education (DfE) Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education guidance (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Local Support

Cambridgeshire Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) Service

Cambridgeshire Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) Service The Cambridgeshire PSHE Service provides guidance, consultancy, training and resources to support and enhance the health and wellbeing of children and young people and their learning. This includes the curriculum for PSHE and Citizenship: its content, approaches to teaching and learning and monitoring and assessment. We also

HEAR – the free to use mental health text service

NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough provides HEAR – the free to use mental health text service HEAR 85258 is being funded by NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, in partnership with the national service SHOUT. The free to use text service provides real-time support to people who are struggling with their mental health across the county. When texting