About Us

Making online safety learning more engaging

Keeping children and young people safe online is at the heart of what we do at Internet Matters. As an organisation, we wanted to create a resource that would bring online safety to life for young people and encourage them to consider closely the consequences of decisions made online.

In research, teachers said they wanted discussion- and activity-based learning with elements of realism. Digital Matters offers interactive lessons with quiz- and story-based activities modelled on how young people interact with their online world. With each decision they make, they get instant feedback to help inform their real-world choices.

Why does it matter?

From September 2020, the Department for Education made the Relationships and Health Education curriculum compulsory in all primary schools in England. As such, schools are looking for quality online safety resources to teach about relationships and e-safety.

In our research, online safety education was varied across different schools with teachers using resources from several sources even within one school for PSHE lessons. While the resources teachers used were largely helpful, they said it would be more useful to have everything they needed in one place. They also expressed a desire for regularly updated content that reflected the changing landscape of children’s digital world.

Parents also expressed interest in content that they could get involved in that teaches real-world issues in a supportive environment. They wanted the ability to discuss these issues with their child to support their learning.

Digital Matters offers detailed supporting resources to properly prepare teachers for the platform and the featured online safety topics. Additionally, parent involvement is encouraged with information guides and parent access that doesn’t require a login. Content is added and updated regularly to stay relevant with changing interests and technologies.

How does it support young people?

Digital Matters follows UKCIS’ Education for a Connected World framework designed by the UK Government. As such, the subjects covered are drawn from the eight strands in the framework. Lesson objectives and learning outcomes are created using this guidance.

Online safety lessons from Digital Matters also align with different curricular areas in English, Computing, Relationships and Health Education and PSHE. This helps students consolidate their learning on a whole-school level.

How does it support professionals who work with young people, parents and carers?

Online safety can be a difficult subject to teach, especially with there being so many elements to children’s digital world. With Digital Matters, educators can engage children with interactive discussion-based lessons and stories for a range of topics. Because the scenarios are based on young people’s use of the internet, the results of choices made are more realistic and more likely to be applied in real situations.

Our parent resource and take-home activities invite parents to learn more and take ownership to continue online safety education beyond the classroom.