31^st March 2025

Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner delivers internet safety message to hundreds of school children.

Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott has been holding internet safety sessions in schools across Kent and Medway.  Targeting Years 5,6 and 7, hundreds of pupils have been learning how to protect themselves online and whom to tell if there is a problem.

The PCC’s new Internet Safety Campaign follows concerning results from his Youth and Parent Surveys which were published at the beginning of the year.  They showed about 30% of school children had been bullied online, but more than 20% of primary and 30% of secondary students told no-one about it. They also revealed about 15% of young people had bullied or picked on someone else and that children were a great deal of information about their online activity from their parents.

Matthew Scott has been presenting hour-long sessions where he discusses how to verify people are who they say they are, how to check if sites are secure, and what sort of information is safe to publish on social media and what is not.  He reminds children about the age restrictions for most social media platforms and why privacy settings are very important.

He also discusses screen time and how digital footprints can catch up with you.

The pupils have then been designing posters or putting together “campaigns”, setting out a mission and how they will go about lobbying for change.  The winning posters and campaigns will be published at the end of the summer term, when the school sessions will end.

Matthew Scott says,

“Protecting young people has always been a priority for me as Police and Crime Commissioner.  Cybercrime is increasing and it’s imperative we alert youngsters to the potential hazards early.  Social media is awash with pitfalls and we know as adults that it’s all too easy to spend hours scrolling through our phones, forgetting everything we say and do will stay online forever.

I’m delighted to be hosting these sessions at our schools and have been very impressed by the posters and campaigns the pupils have produced. It will be difficult to pick the winners.”

ENDS

Note to editors:

We have produced an Internet Safety page on our website for more information about the sessions:

Youth Internet Safety Campaign

You can read the full results of our Youth and Parent Surveys here: Public consultations