Childnet have just launched a new resource aimed at 9-12 year olds. The toolkit is called “Just a Joke?” and explores problematic online sexual behaviour.
Here is a link to the full toolkit. https://www.childnet.com/resources/just-a-joke
The objectives of the toolkit are:
- To support educators in delivering high quality PSHE/PSE and relationships education lessons.
- To give children a safe space to discuss, explore and challenge peer to peer online sexual harassment e.g. bullying or harmful behaviour online based on gender or sexual orientation stereotypes, body-shaming, nudity and sexually explicit content.
- To discuss with children how they can be good friends online.
- To raise awareness of this issue to prevent it from becoming normalised.
- To give children the confidence to report unacceptable online behaviour.
It approaches problematic online sexual behaviour, with a focus on online sexual harassment e.g. bullying or harmful behaviour online based on gender or sexual orientation stereotypes, body-shaming, nudity and sexually explicit content.
In resources that are used or seen by children, the term ‘cyberbullying’ and refer to the specific type – cyberbullying that uses gender stereotypes, body shaming or nude images is used. This is because we know the words ‘sexual’ and ‘harassment’ may not be understood, used or appropriate for 9-12 year olds.
- Three lesson plans
- Quick activities
- An interactive quiz
- Teaching Guide
This toolkit for 9-12 year olds follows on from the creation of the ‘Step Up, Speak Up!’ toolkit for 13-17 year olds. Feedback on these resources showed the need and desire for a toolkit to address this topic with a younger age group; this is where the beginnings of online sexual harassment were being noticed, and a need to challenge it early was identified.
Find more information about the project and its beginnings here.
