Nursery World - Call for online safety to be included in early years curriculum to protect under-fives

Early years organisations are calling for an explicit reference to online safety and digital literacy in be added to the EYFS, ahead of the conclusion of a government inquiry.

According to Ofcom, almost one in five children aged three to five have their own mobile phone PHOTO AdobeStock

They warn that parents, carers and early years educators need more support and tools to teach young children how to protect themselves online.

In March, the House of Lords communications and digital committee launched an inquiry into media literacy.

The inquiry aims to ‘identify and prioritise the key actions required to enhance media literacy skills across the population to enable citizens to engage with the digital world safely and responsibly.’

However, while the review notes ‘young children are increasingly present online, with a third of those aged five to seven accessing social media unsupervised’, they argue the inquiry has not so far focussed enough on the experiences of very young children.

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