The following amendments have been selected: amendments 1 and 2 in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth.

We now move on to the Welsh Conservative debate: child safety online. I call on Darren Millar to move the motion.

Motion NDM6305 Paul Davies

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Recognises the multitude of risks which children face using the internet.

2. Notes the immense importance of taking action to ensure children are kept safe online, and educating them as to the steps they should be taking to help protect themselves when using the internet.

3. Calls on the Welsh Government to outline a comprehensive response to concerns raised by the NSPCC, regarding an increase in related calls they have received about internet safety.

4. Further calls on the Welsh Government to ensure that prioritisation of online safety is integral to all strategies aiming to deliver safer communities for children across Wales.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m pleased to have the opportunity to open this important debate this afternoon, and I move the motion in the name of Paul Davies on the order paper today, recognising the multitude of risks that children face using the internet, noting the importance of taking action to ensure children’s safety online, and calling upon the Welsh Government to respond to concerns from the NSPCC and other organisations, so that we can get things right in terms of having this as a priority going forward.

Now, before I get into my speech, I just want to say that we will be supporting both of the amendments today that have been tabled by Plaid Cymru. We think that they do complement our motion, and they recognise the need for a joined-up approach here, by all Governments across the United Kingdom and, in fact, around the world, in order to address some of the very real issues.

The cyber-attack incidents that took place over the weekend showed, in very stark terms, I think, just how reliant we have become, as a society, on the internet and digital technology. There is no doubt in my mind that, very often, we’re over-reliant on these things. And of course, we particularly bring these things into focus when something goes wrong, and, as we have seen, they can go spectacularly wrong. But as policy makers and lawmakers here in the Senedd today, many of us are old enough to remember a time without personal computers, without smartphones; some may be able to remember the very first tablets—and I’m not talking about the ones that Moses brought down from the top of Sinai—but chalk tablets, even, in the classroom to be used as learning aids. If you talk about those things to a young person now, they’re just bewildered by the fact that there was an absence of technology in times before. Because the reality is that they are so used to, and so familiar with the technology that is all around us—in school and in the home—that when I talk about the fact that I was a youngster and my mum and dad bought me for Christmas a ZX Spectrum and it was the bees knees, and it used to take half an hour to load a programme, with a little cassette tape, they’re absolutely astonished. So, we’ve got a new generation who are more familiar with technology, very often, than those who are teaching them in our schools and their parents at home. In fact, we’re very often more illiterate than they are when it comes to technology.

Now, of course, the fact that we have all this technology presents huge opportunities for the future—opportunities in education, in employment, in social networking—all on this huge, big global scale. But as much as technology is a blessing, it also can be a curse. We’ve seen that having this wealth of information, particularly over the internet, doesn’t come risk free, and it can expose people—vulnerable people and children—to some very real harms. Pornography, gambling, inappropriate sharing of personalised sexual information and content, fraud, cyber bullying, online grooming, blackmail, exploitation and radicalisation are all things that the internet has brought into people’s homes and onto people’s laps. And they’re real threats. They’re threats to the physical and mental health and well-being of young people here in Wales today. That’s why we’ve got to ensure that online safety is a top priority for us now and in terms of how we go forward.

To be fair to the Welsh Government, I think it’s already done some very good work on this front. They’ve already taken some measures to protect students in Welsh schools and to raise e-safety standards in those places of learning. I know, for example, that the South West Grid for Learning has been working in partnership with the Welsh Government since 2014 on these e-safety issues. I also know that around 78 per cent of schools in Wales, so far, have used the 360 Degree Safe Cymru self-review tool, which evaluates how safe their online practices actually are. Of course, they’re also providing opportunities through Safer Internet Day campaigns as well to raise the profile and the importance of these issues.

I’m very pleased also to see the Welsh Government strongly supporting Operation Net Safe, which is a programme in conjunction with the police and the Lucy Faithfull Foundation that aims to stop the creation, viewing and sharing of indecent images of children online. I’m very pleased to see the recent report of the Internet Watch Foundation—and I should have declared the fact that I’m actually an internet watch champion on behalf of that association at the start of my speech—but I was very pleased to see that the UK now hosts less than 0.1 per cent of child sexual abuse images worldwide. That’s because of this zero tolerance approach that has been taken by the UK Government and by all of the devolved administrations on that particular issue. It’s great that we’re making that progress, but we’ve got to do more. The only way we can do that is by having more of a cross-sectoral approach within the Government and without the Government, but with the leadership of the Government to bring individuals together. We need the education sector working together with parents, with industry, with experts in civil society and, of course, with children themselves in order to educate our young people about how best they can protect themselves, so that we can develop the tools that we all need to respond to a constantly evolving internet and the threats and harms that can be associated with it.

Clearly, the obvious starting place to teach and empower children and young people on internet safety is by entrenching some key measures and principles into our education system where digital literacy is actually taught, and we have a great opportunity with the new curriculum that is being shaped in Wales to embed these things more permanently, if you like, within that new curriculum. But it requires, in my view, a more comprehensive strategy as well going forward in order to nail this thing—a strategy that can be regularly under review. We know that NSPCC Cymru have been calling for measures to be introduced by the Welsh Government to protect children online, including the publication of a comprehensive online safety action plan that is underpinned by an advisory group that can ensure that Wales is really at the forefront of keeping children safe online in the UK and around the world. The Welsh Government hasn’t yet responded to that particular recommendation from the NSPCC, and I hope very much that the Cabinet Secretary in her response to the debate today will be able to tell us whether that is something that the Welsh Government is prepared to take up, so that we can embed this plan into our schools, into our public sector and across Government, so that we can have this standardised approach.

I am concerned, I have to say, that whilst there has been some progress, we’ve still got 22 per cent of Welsh schools who have not yet evaluated, using that self-evaluation tool, the safety of their online practice. I think that the inspectorate, Estyn, for example, does have a role in making sure that that is one of the things that features highly on the radar of schools in terms of protecting those children. We’ve got some very good child protection policies across Wales, lots of paperwork about child protection, but very often the one thing that is missing from all of those bits of paper is this issue of internet safety.

There’s also been some very good work, as I said earlier on, over the border in England. The UK Government has been leading on this, really, worldwide in terms of internet safety. They adopted an all-sector approach from the outset. In 2013, the then Prime Minister worked with the internet industry to get the service providers to offer internet filters to parents so that they could select what their children can and cannot view online. In 2014, the House of Commons culture and media select committee did a report into online safety and it set out some of the challenges and made some clear recommendations that the UK Government has been taking forward. Of course, internet safety has been a compulsory part of the curriculum in England now since 2014, and some key work has been done, particularly to stop the spectre of bullying and cyberbullying that has been taking place online and has been so costly, and devastatingly costly, to some young people who, as a result of that bullying, unfortunately have taken their own lives.

In 2015, we found that schools in England are now required to filter all inappropriate online content and to teach pupils about being safe. I know that that filtering takes place in our schools as well, which can only be a good thing. But of course, pupils aren’t just accessing inappropriate internet content on their computers in the school. They’re also taking mobile phones into school. They’re taking their own tablets into school, and of course that also has inherent risks. So, we’ve got a lot more that we need to do in order to get this situation right, and I think that, as a country, Wales needs to be leading, we need to be on the front foot, and we need to be working with the other administrations across the UK if we’re ever to deal with this problem.

Just one practical thing before I pass the baton on to the next speaker in the debate, and that is this: there are family-friendly internet policies that have been adopted by some businesses in Britain, but not all of those businesses have taken the opportunity to have family-friendly internet on their premises. There are many hotel groups, restaurants and parts of the public sector that haven’t got family-friendly filters in place on their internet servers, and it’s essential, I think, that we get these things in place if we’re ever going to have the proper protections in place for our children going forward.

So, I encourage people to accept the motion in the spirit in which it’s put forward today, in a non-partisan way, and to work with us in order to shape the future so that we can keep our young people safe. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I have selected the two amendments to the motion. I call on Llyr Gruffydd to move amendments 1 and 2 tabled in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Amendment 1—Rhun ap Iorwerth

Add as new point after point 1 and re-number accordingly:

Notes the importance of a digitally literate Wales, and that encouraging safe internet use is an essential part of a child’s education.

Amendment 2—Rhun ap Iorwerth

Add as new point at end of motion:

Calls on the UK government to work with the relevant companies to tackle online abuse, noting in particular the abuse experienced by women and minority groups.

Amendments 1 and 2 moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m very pleased to be able to contribute to this debate this afternoon. As one who’s a father of children coming to an age where they do have an online presence and use social media, I can identify with some of the opening remarks made in this debate. Of course, I’m from a generation that didn’t grow up with social media, and it’s difficult for someone like me, I think, to identify with my children, who not only have the experience of learning about and understanding these social media, but do that while simultaneously facing all the pressures and challenges of growing up. So, it’s no surprise that that can lead to a confusion of emotional experience, which can lead to outcomes that are very often less than favourable.

We know from the work carried out by the NSPCC that some 20 per cent of children aged between eight and 11 have a profile on social media, and that increases to some 70 per cent for those aged between 12 and 15. A quarter of children have had an experience that has caused them concern on a social media site and a third have suffered online bullying. So, that gives us a flavour of how grave the situation is, and that, of course, is reflected in the figures that Childline regularly release, which demonstrate the increasing demand for their services.

Under the new national curriculum—and we’ve heard reference to that already—digital competence will be one of the three cross-curricular responsibilities, and that is entirely appropriate and entirely necessary. It is something that we would all welcome, and it is crucial that that framework should empower children and young people to make safe use of the internet as a fundamental part of their education. Only today I was reading a report from the World Health Organization that demonstrated that young people in Wales were in the fourth position out of 42 nations around the world on use of social media and computers. Over three quarters of girls aged between 11 and 15, and almost 85 per cent of boys, were using a computer, tablet or phone for two hours or more on school nights for reasons other than gaming.

Now, you don’t need an expert—although they do endorse that message, of course—to tell us that that presents a grave health risk, in terms of mental health and, without a doubt, because of the threats of cyber bullying, but also the impacts on physical health, in terms of obesity, type 2 diabetes in the longer term, and so on. And recent survey from February last year for Safer Internet Day identified that a quarter of teenagers had suffered online hatred in the past year. Now, on social media, that’s where young people were most likely to suffer that kind of abuse, and, in some cases, those would be seen as a hate crime, which again underlines the gravity of the situation.

Over the past week, as we’ve just heard, cyber crime has been in the headlines with that cyber attack on the health service in England and Scotland, which had a major impact on services there. But we must, of course, take just as seriously crimes against individuals online, although those can be hidden, very often, whereas the attacks that we’ve seen on the health service are not.

Just last year the ONS started to publish experimental figures on cyber crime, and those figures were far higher than anyone had expected, with 5.8 million crimes in England and Wales in the year up to July of last year. That is enough to almost double the crime rate here in Wales and England. Harassment crimes increased, including new crimes such as malicious correspondence online and misuse of social media and so on—an increase of 90 per cent, from 82,000 to 156,000. And therefore, the scale of the problem is becoming more and more apparent, and the scale of the response needed is also a crucial issue that needs to be increased.

Girls suffered twice as many threats to kill or attack them physically than men. According to one study, there were 66 cases on social media, but only 10 per cent of the girls who had suffered abuse or harassment online reported that to police. Therefore, there is a very serious challenge facing us there, too.

The fact that there is so much abuse happening on social media does require that young people are given the necessary education to empower them to protect themselves and their interests, and also highlights, as the Plaid Cymru amendments outline, the need for the UK Government to take action with relevant companies and others to tackle this, and to do so as soon as possible.

I’m pleased to have the opportunity to take part in this debate this afternoon. Safeguarding children and young people online continues to be a genuine challenge for society, and we all have a duty to ensure that children are protected better from the risks of using the internet. As Darren Millar said, the internet is an extremely useful tool, too, for educating children online, and previous generations could only dream of that. Not only is it an excellent academic tool that can support teaching and learning, it also provides access to the latest entertainment at the touch of a button, and it encourages children to develop relationships through social media. And although each of these areas helps to educate our children and young people, it can also be a very dangerous place for them.

The internet has demonstrated that, although it can strengthen relationships, it can put children at risk of cyber bullying, exploitation and abuse, both sexual and emotional. You don’t need to look too far to find some heartbreaking stories of children across the world who have taken their own lives because of the bullying and threats that they received online. Just recently, in my own constituency, a 14-year-old girl died at home following a hidden battle against cyber bullies, an issue that she had kept hidden from her family. Unfortunately, this young girl is one of a host of young people who suffer in silence at the hands of bullies who have used the internet as a platform to spread hatred and to abuse. We owe a great debt to these victims and their families, and therefore we must do more to ensure that the internet is safer for our children. I believe that this starts by having a far more open dialogue across society on how we use the internet more safely and more responsibly. We have a duty to ensure that that dialogue happens in classrooms, at home and in communities across Wales. I would encourage the Cabinet Secretary—and we will do everything we can on this side of the house to support her—to consider the establishment of a broad-ranging campaign in Wales, encouraging people to discuss the advantages and risks of using the internet.

It’s also crucial that the Welsh Government takes the reins by taking action on the NSPCC’s demand for a comprehensive strategy that would be supported by a digital support group to ensure that Wales is in the vanguard in keeping children safe when they are online. A public debate on online safety, as well as an online action plan led by Government, would hopefully send a strong message that the safety of children online is a priority for the Welsh Government, and that this is something that has been considered in earnest.

Now, schools, of course, have an important part to play in terms of safeguarding children and young people, and it’s important that teachers and classroom assistants are given full and up-to-date training on issues related to online safety, so that they can better identify those who are at risk of abuse online.

So, in responding to the debate today, perhaps the Cabinet Secretary could provide us with an update on the level and frequency of training provided to teachers in relation to online safety. Naturally, schools across Wales should look to adopt policies for preventing and tackling cyber bullying, and promoting online safety, which are appropriate to their own communities and their own local cultures. I accept that some good work has been done across Wales. As Darren Millar said, the South West Grid for Learning has been working in partnership with the Welsh Government since 2014 in order to raise awareness of issues of cyber safety in Welsh schools, and I note that they launched their own tool to assist schools in Wales to assess and improve their policies and safety practices. But as has already been said, only 78 per cent of schools in Wales have registered and use that particular tool, which means that 22 per cent of schools are evaluating things in a different way.

Now, while schools have to be proactive in drawing up policies that best reflect their own needs and the challenges that they face, certainly there is some scope for some basic standards in terms of how schools should measure their efficiency in tackling the issue of cyber security and safety. Now, the South West Grid for Learning has called on Estyn to establish clear expectations for cyber safety and to support and lead schools and other agencies in reaching those targets and standards. So, in responding to this debate, perhaps the Cabinet Secretary could give us an update on how far Estyn have got in developing those standards.

So, in conclusion, Deputy Presiding Officer, the internet is changing the way that we are communicating, and though I accept that the internet can be a great educational, social and cultural tool, it can be a very dangerous place for people who are vulnerable, particularly children and young people. It’s crucial that we speak openly about the benefits and risks of using the internet, and encourage children to be positive digital citizens who use the internet confidently and safety. So, I encourage Members to support the motion this afternoon. Thank you.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to speak in this important debate today. As the chair of the cross-party group for preventing child sexual abuse, we have worked closely with the NSPCC, Stop It Now! Cymru and the Survivors Trust. These organisations are dedicated to putting an end to the online abuse and exploitation of children through a preventative and early intervention approach. Child sexual abuse has to be called out for what it is, and we must not shy away from the reality of it. Speaking up on this is a must. Sexual abuse thrives on secrecy, and while we’ve spent years teaching children about stranger danger, and how to be safe when they’re out and about, the anonymity of the internet requires different measures to safeguard children. As it is the responsibility of all of us to look out for the dangers in our communities, keeping children safe online must be a collective effort.

Children are some of the most prolific consumers of online content. According to the latest National Survey for Wales statistics, 95 per cent of children in Wales aged 7 to 15 use the internet at home. Ofcom estimates that children and young people spend an average of 15 hours online per week, which is greater than the time they spend watching tv. Social media sites, online games and apps that children use are constantly changing, and it can be difficult for parents and teachers to keep up. In particular, parents and carers often don’t know about the different rules and risks that come with each site. The NSPCC’s Net Aware campaign is tackling this directly, by giving parents the resources to find out about the sites their children use, providing them with a guide to these sites and the associated risks. This is a great example of the charity working in partnership with businesses to safeguard and protect children.

Worryingly, from the numbers of children who contact Childline, viewing sexually explicit images saw the greatest year-on-year increase, up by 60 per cent from 2014-15. Young people reported that online groomers used a number of different forums to contact them. However, manipulative tactics used by offenders mean many child victims are unaware that they are being groomed or exploited, and often adults are unable to identify the signs. I know that the Welsh Government is currently working closely with the UK Council for Child Internet Safety Board on how to deal with difficult online safety issues, such as sexting. But more work needs to be done with internet providers, and I would like to see the UK Government taking a stronger lead on this.

Police forces around Wales are working with schools to educate pupils on issues such as grooming, sexual exploitation, sharing images and staying safe online. Gwent Police, for example, has provided 1,874 lessons to almost 50,000 pupils in 2014-15. The Welsh Government is supporting Operation NetSafe, a pan-Wales campaign led by South Wales Police in partnership with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, which aims to prevent viewing and sharing of indecent images of children online. This work is important, and all good practice must be shared.

Healthy relationships are essential in helping children understand boundaries, and how to behave online, and I’m pleased that the expert panel are providing advice and support on issues relating to this in the curriculum. In addition, today’s news from the education Secretary is very welcome. A new national online safety action plan for children and young people will build on the extensive programme already under way in schools to support young people to stay safe online. Finally, the cross-party group has an online safety event in the Pierhead in October, and I hope many Members will attend to show support and determination to do all that we can to tackle child sexual exploitation online.

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak this afternoon on the motion, which I believe deserves cross-party support. This debate is about how we can protect children from the dangers presented by the internet. We are all aware how the internet has brought enormous benefits to our society. Whether in the fields of business, trade, education, or simply in the way we seek information, the internet has transformed the way we live our lives. There is a view held by some that nothing can or should be done to regulate the internet. But the fact is that internet access has a dark side also.

Our children need to be protected from the damaging effect of online pornography, which has been mentioned by a lot of our colleagues just now, and illegal images. Our schools, Minister, should have some sort of comprehensive policy for e-safety for our children and also for the children who use the internet without parental supervision at home. Earlier, my colleague mentioned that our children are using the internet for more than 15 hours or more than 44 hours a week, which is totally unacceptable. They should be taught and regulated properly. The internet is a marketplace and like all other marketplaces it must be regulated.

Progress has already been made in improving internet safety. In 2013, the Conservative-led Government announced an agreement with the four major internet service providers to offer internet filters to parents. This enabled parents to select what their children can and cannot view online. A year later, the House of Commons culture and media select committee, looking at online safety, set out some of the key challenges that the UK Government needed to address. It recommended that a robust age-verification process be put in place for legal adult sites. In addition, the committee recommended introducing measures that could make it easier for filters to operate and for search engines not to return the material when operating in safe search mode. The UK Government welcomed the recommendations and made internet safety a compulsory part of the new curriculum. Schools in England can also teach e-safety in personal, social, health and economic education and they’re required by law to have measures in place to prevent bullying and cyber bullying.

There are certain other areas, Deputy Presiding Officer, in which the internet actually gives so much advantage. But for our very young children there are suicidal attitudes, race hate, anorexia, gambling and other things that have already been mentioned. Across England, schools are now required to filter inappropriate online content and teach pupils about staying safe. They are also required to put in place and strengthen measures to protect children from harm online, including cyber bullying, pornography and the risk of radicalisation, which is virtually a disease globally we’ve got to tackle. Professionals such as nurses, doctors and teachers who work with children and young people will receive new online training to equip them with the tools they need to handle online risks and support young people in today’s digital world. But there is more to do, Deputy Presiding Officer.

The Prime Minister has pledged that her Government will introduce new digital entitlements and protection should it be re-elected next month. Measures have been taken to protect students in Welsh schools and to raise e-safety standards. However, Wales needs to entrench each measure into the education system. NSPCC Cymru has called for new measures to be introduced by the Welsh Government to help protect children online. They called on the Welsh Government to produce a comprehensive online safety action plan. This would be underpinned by a digital advisory group to ensure that Wales is at the forefront of keeping children safe online. I hope the Welsh Government takes steps to act upon the recommendation of NSPCC Cymru.

Deputy Presiding Officer, protecting our children from internet danger is a cause that should unite this Chamber rather than divide it. We can all agree that Welsh Government should prioritise online safety to keep our children safe. I support the motion; I hope everybody does the same. Thank you.

Thanks to the Conservatives for bringing today’s motion. As the motion states, there are a multitude of risks that children face using the internet these days, many of which have been outlined in the various contributions today, including cyber-bullying, addictions to gambling, sexual grooming, the encouragement of self-harming and also, as Llyr mentioned, the overall health problems that could develop as a result of young people simply spending too much time on the internet. So, all of these things do need to be taken into account, and as the contributors have generally agreed on today, we do need a joined-up approach. It probably does require a comprehensive response that would be timely, as the NSPCC have asked for. I’m aware that schools and local authorities have put measures in place in some areas, and I’m sure the Minister will give us more information and an update on that.

Of course, the problem with this issue is that it is developing quickly, and there are new threats emerging even as politicians like us debate these issues. So, it’s difficult to keep track of it all. And as Darren pointed out in his opening statement, often the kids themselves are more aware of what’s going on online than the adults, such as people in schools and parents.

The focus, almost inevitably from a Government, is likely to be on a contribution from schools. The problem is that although this is to be welcomed, it’s not always going to be successful because, of course, many young people aren’t really going to tend to listen at all times to what they’re told at school. So, some of these problems won’t emerge from discussions at school and, of course, they can be missed by parents. But what I was going to focus on slightly was the role of parents in this area. Often, if problems from internet use arise, then they are likely to be spotted by parents first, rather than schools. So, it is crucial that we do have parents who are encouraged to spend quality time with their kids, such as shared meal times, because they need to understand what their children’s normal behaviour is before they’re able to spot any changes in behaviour. And quite often, if problems are going on online, they will become apparent to parents from their interaction with their children, but of course they need to have that close relationship with their children to start with.

So, although we do need to be looking at this kind of comprehensive response that we’ve all been talking about today, we do also need to focus on the role of parents, and perhaps there is still a role in whatever response we come up with, or whatever response the Government suggests, for educating the parents as to the need for this quality time with their children. Thank you.

A few months ago—and I think I might have mentioned this more than once already, so apologies—colleagues and I went to see the large hadron collider at CERN in Geneva. The facility is vast, but less than a speck in the story of the universe. The work, of course, to which thousands of our brightest people from all over the world are dedicated. It’s expensive work in which countries are eager to participate, and which has transcended war and claims on national purses at times of recession. It’s also, of course, the home of the development of the worldwide web, and that first iteration is still there. You can see it; it’s like the warehouse in the Indiana Jones movie where those top men are hiding the ark of the covenant, and that was just the baby internet. It is entirely understandable that when we consider the risks to children using the internet, we are completely daunted by the enormity of the task. It is not just the recognition that this will probably need a full global response, as Darren said, but the recognition that for every step that we can take at any level, from personal to international, there is someone who can outrun us or outfox us.

Well, I don’t think that is a good enough excuse. If the world can collaborate to find the god particle, it can collaborate to protect its children from online dangers. And article 4 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child demands it, with parties under a duty to undertake all appropriate legislative, administrative and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognised in the present convention. There is a growing body of worldwide research on how states might achieve this—far too much to go into today—but the Conservative Government’s ratification of the Convention on Cybercrime in 2011, on behalf of us all, incidentally, I think that was a declaration of intent to take action. The fact that we are just one state when UNICEF observes that many legal jurisdictions are not taking anything like adequate action shouldn’t stop us aiming to make Britain the safest country in the world for children and young people to be online. There’s a UK Green Paper due in the summer. It’s an area that, I think, commands our attention and certainly scrutiny from us all. Jayne Bryant, I agree with you that this is something we should all be looking at and something that the UK Government might still be able to do more on. I hope, actually, we find time to debate its principles here in the Assembly. Even though the legislation is coming from another place, this really is something for all of us.

But I have to say that with legislation, I find this quite a tricky one actually, because I get a bit queasy at the thought of the state coming into my home. But, I was researching this online last night, looking at some of the adverts that have been put out there by various charities warning young people against grooming and online abuse, and to be honest, that made me feel a lot, lot queasier. I actually found myself agreeing with Claire Perry, the MP whose parliamentary online child protection report came out fairly recently, which advocates default barring of adult content, opt-in filters rather than opt-out, and for households, the simplest one-click parental control. I think you can have some control over access to content in your home, but outside the home we seem to be relying very, very heavily on educating children and young people, and indeed adults, on how to recognise danger, to avoid it and how to report it. I’ve been in a class, a junior-age class, in Dyffryn Cellwen, in my region, to see what it looks like in that school and it was excellent—completely age-appropriate. But Gareth Bennett is right. For some teenagers who may, in fact, absolutely understand the dangers of texting and bullying and date apps and even those less obvious dangers of online gaming, in the moment, it all goes out of the window in the face of a compliment or a dare.

I think we might also need to face up to what’s becoming the addictive nature of social media. That idea that parents are all sitting down around a table to discuss things with their children is disappearing when we’re now looking at families, even if they’re all in the same room, all on their individual devices, all with their individual things in their ears and all in their individual worlds. Like all addictions, it has the propensity to alienate you, to distance you, from the people who can offer perspective and safety. So, I approve of all these soap operas and dramas that are running storylines on the dangers to raise awareness, but for every oversharer who posts a picture of, you know, children’s birthdays or sport’s days or school concerts, they’re opening up those children, potentially, to risks, simply from connection with those innocent posts. Of course, that runs alongside the type of things we’ve been talking about: the access to un-moderated extremist ideas, gambling, the unusual sexual content, if you like, and of course, the malignancy of the charming new cyber friend who makes you feel so very, very special.

That space between the screen and the young brain is small, it is intimate and it is secret, and I don’t think it’s one that’s necessarily reached by parental awareness. So, I certainly support what the UK Government is doing at the moment. I urge the Welsh Government, in the area where it has competence, to treat its powers as duties and maybe to look at its own emphasis on digital interaction as maybe a route into reaching the young people who are in that secret space. Thank you.

Thank you. I now call the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Kirsty Williams.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Could I begin by thanking Darren Miller and the Welsh Conservatives for bringing forward the debate this afternoon and the very thoughtful contributions that we’ve had from across the Chamber? I’m afraid, Deputy Presiding Officer, I have to admit that I am indeed old enough to remember what a ZX Spectrum was, although I have to admit I was more of a Commodore 64 person myself. Could I assure the Chamber that the Welsh Government is fully committed to keeping our children and young people safe online? There is nothing—nothing—more important than the safety of our young people and knowing how to stay safe online is fundamental in our world today. I say that as the Cabinet Secretary and I say that as a mother of three girls—two teenagers for whom the loss of the Wi-Fi connection at home is nothing short of a national tragedy.

Now, online safety has been, and will continue to be, a key priority for us. Although there are many benefits in embracing digital technology, there is also a range of potential risks that have been highlighted by Members here this afternoon. Paul Davies is right to remind us of the young people who have chosen to end their lives as a result of cyber bullying. If we’re honest, we all know that trolling from our opponents is one of the least satisfying aspects of this job, and, if it gets us down, imagine what that relentless cyber bullying must do to the young mind that Suzy Davies talked about.

When I was a child, at least when you went home you could escape from it, but it is now relentless and 24 hours a day. And then there is, of course, the access to sexually explicit material and the impact that that has on how both boys and girls view their body image and how they view what a healthy sexual relationship actually looks like. And, of course, there aren’t just consequences for those at the receiving end. Sometimes, those who perpetrate some of these issues have little concept of what it might mean for them. I’m aware of a young man who was caught up in a sexting incident. When asked by the police why he had done it, he said, ‘Well, everybody does it’. He didn’t realise that the caution that is now on his record will probably prevent him from ever travelling to Australia or the United States—because of something that he did without understanding the consequences, something that he did when he was just a 14-year-old boy.

So, it is our responsibility, as a society, to equip our young people with the skills to be able to think critically and navigate the digital world in a safe and responsible way. There is a significant amount of work that is going on in Wales to help young people stay safe online and I’m glad that that has been acknowledged here in the Chamber this afternoon. At the beginning of the school year, the digital competence framework, the DCF, was made available. This is the first element of the new curriculum to be introduced across Wales. The citizenship strand of the DCF focuses on developing and applying critical thinking skills and strategies. It will support our young people to become responsible and independent consumers, which is absolutely crucial now and inevitably more so into the future. It includes specific elements focused on online behaviour, cyber bullying, and health and well-being.

To promote safe and responsible use of digital technology, the Welsh Government, as we have heard on a number of occasions this afternoon, has been working with the South West Grid for Learning charitable trust since 2014. The online safety project has seen many successes to date. This includes the development of 360 Degree Safe Cymru, a bilingual online safety self-assessment tool, which, as we’ve heard, allows schools to benchmark their current online safety policies and provision against national standards. The tool also provides guidance and support, with practical suggestions to improve and enhance online safety. Over 85 per cent of schools in Wales have already registered and I am actively working with the regional consortia to ensure that all schools are aware of the benefits the tool can offer and our expectation that they should be engaging with it.

The Welsh Government has also developed and published the online safety resource for Wales. This is a collection of practical resources and lesson plans to support schools in the delivery of online safety in our classrooms. These resources are designed to empower learners to think critically, behave safely, and participate responsibly when they are online. At the beginning of this academic year, we published three safeguarding training modules on Hwb. These modules have already been accessed over 7,000 times and we will shortly publish two further modules specifically focusing on online safety.

Online safety training sessions have been delivered across all local authorities in Wales to upskill teachers and governors in preparing them to deal with issues that young people may encounter online. This year, the Welsh Government are building upon this by offering a range of additional training opportunities and these will focus on specific issues such as the safe use of social media and cyber bullying. I’m also aware that a number of schools have operated their own training sessions after school for parents, inviting parents into the school so that they can find out more on how better they can support their children.

On Safer Internet Day earlier this year, I launched the new online safety zone on the Hwb. This has been developed to support education stakeholders, including young people, in this critical area. The dedicated area hosts news, events, and a range of resources on online safety issues, and these resources include materials that have been developed with a range of third sector partners. The zone also signposts those dealing with the effects of cyber bullying towards appropriate support services, and I’m pleased to see that, since its launch, the zone has had over 40,000 page views. Of course, we need to do more, and I and the Cabinet Secretary for health are working collaboratively to see what more we can do to help schools and teachers build resilience around well-being and mental health issues, and we hope to make an announcement later on in this year.

I’m sure you will agree that the Welsh Government is already delivering an extensive programme of online safety activities. Additionally, I am pleased to announce today that I am indeed commissioning a national online safety action plan. This will provide a strategic overview of how we will continue to enhance online safety support in Wales, and further information will be provided as this work is developed.

Can I once again thank everybody for their contribution to this afternoon’s debate? The Government will support the amendments and the motion as amended. Thank you.

Thank you. And I call on Darren Millar to reply to the debate.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and can I thank everybody who’s contributed to this debate? I think it’s been an extremely good debate, and a very well-informed debate. Many Members have spoken about their own personal experiences of technology, and indeed have given us some of the very stark facts about online abuse, online exploitation, and indeed some of the problems that that has caused, including for individuals in circumstances like Paul’s constituent, who, unfortunately, took their own life. I should have paid tribute, actually, to the work of Jayne Bryant as chair of the cross-party group on preventing child sexual abuse, because she’s done an excellent job in highlighting this as an issue, along with the NSPCC and others, who have been working hard to get it onto our agenda more forcefully. You’ve done an excellent job, and I’m pleased you’ve been able to contribute to the debate today.

I think also—I was very taken, actually, with Gareth Bennett’s point about parents and the role of parents, because there is a lot of parental ignorance, frankly, about the potential abuse that’s taking place in the upstairs bedroom where their child is squirreled away while they’re downstairs watching the TV, and many parents aren’t aware of the fact that they can put filters in place, that they can put apps on people’s mobile phones, et cetera, in order to better protect their families. And, you know, I’m a dad—it was good to hear Kirsty as the Cabinet Secretary referring to her children too—I want the best possible protections in place for my children, and I’ve been really impressed, actually, with the resources that are out there if you seek them and if you look for them. So, I think the fact that many schools are quite rightly engaging with parents in order to encourage them to take up those opportunities is a good thing, and I was very pleased to hear that in your response, Minister, to the debate.

As Suzy Davies quite rightly said, this is an international issue, it’s not just something that Wales needs to tackle, or the UK needs to tackle, and I’m pleased that the UK is ahead of the pack, really, and is doing some world-leading stuff on tackling the dangers of the internet. I was very pleased, also, to hear you mention the ark of the covenant after I mentioned Moses’ stone tablets from the top of Sinai, which, of course, were put into the ark of the covenant afterwards, so it’s a nice link there. But most of all, Cabinet Secretary, I’m delighted with your response to the debate, because I think it shows that we’ve got consensus across the Chamber on this important issue—and not only that, but that you are prepared to take some action. So, I was delighted to hear you talk about the national online safety action plan that you’re now hoping to develop. We will want to work with you on that and support its implementation in whatever way that we can. But let’s not forget also that it’s not just about schools, it’s not just about working with parents, we need to work with wider society too, with businesses and other organizations, basically, wherever free Wi-Fi is available.

Just one final point here: I was very concerned—. I recently took out a mobile phone contract with Vodafone—I’m going to name them—and it was a great deal. However, one of the problems with the contract was that it came with automatic internet safety filtering, which was great, but, after a month, they told me I had to pay extra for that filtering to continue. These should be things that are automatic. Frankly, we should be paying more for taking those filters down, rather than actually having to pay for them to be put in place. So, let’s keep working together, on a corporate basis in the Assembly, to challenge these sorts of things and these sorts of attitudes from telephony providers, from businesses, who don’t pay the due regard that they need to to the dangers of internet safety, and, hopefully, we can make Wales a safer place to grow up. Thank you.

Thank you very much. The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does any Member object? [Objection.] You object, okay. Therefore we will defer voting under this item until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.