Safeguarding internet behaviour must be part of daily practice
Safer Internet Day 2026 : “Smart tech, safe choices. Exploring the safe and responsible use of AI.”
Punti chiave:
- Safer Internet Day plays an important role in raising awareness, but effective online safety requires continuous, year-round safeguarding in schools.
- Growing regulatory expectations mean digital safeguarding is now an operational responsibility, not a once-a-year initiative.
- The strongest approaches combine education with proportionate monitoring and filtering that supports early intervention and safe digital learning.
Every February, Giornata per un Internet più sicuro provides an important focal point for schools, trusts and educators. Time, care and expertise go into assemblies, lessons and conversations that help children and young people reflect on online behaviour, safety and wellbeing.
That work matters.
Safer Internet Day creates shared language, reinforces expectations and gives digital safety visible space in busy school calendars. For many pupils, it opens the door to questions and conversations that might not otherwise happen.
In 2026, we must broaden the conversation. Not to diminish Safer Internet Day, but to strengthen its impact.
Online risk does not operate on a calendar. Digital learning, connected devices and AI-powered tools are part of school life every day. Safeguarding therefore needs to be continuous, embedded into everyday practice rather than concentrated into a single annual moment.
Across the UK, expectations have shifted. The Online Safety Act 2023 introduced clearer duties around protecting children online, while Department for Education guidance on generative AI has moved the conversation on from whether AI will appear in classrooms to how it is used safely, responsibly and transparently.
These signals point in one direction. Online safety is no longer an occasional focus. It is an operational responsibility.
Safer Internet Day plays a positive and necessary role in raising awareness. But awareness alone cannot carry the full weight of safeguarding. Online risks, including bullying, exploitation, harmful content and misuse of AI tools, can emerge at any point during the school year.
The most effective approaches combine education and discussion with systems that operatequietly and proportionately in the background. Visibility enables earlier support, not surveillance. It allows schools to intervene with care before issues escalate, while continuing to enable learning.
At Lightspeed, this principle underpins how we approach filtering and monitoring. Safeguarding is designed to sit alongside learning, not in opposition to it. Real-time insight into digital behaviour helps schools support pupils, staff and pastoral teams with confidence.
So alongside reflecting on how Safer Internet Day is delivered, a valuable complementary question for 2026 is this:
What are we doing, every day, to actively safeguard online behaviour in line with rising expectations and future standards?
Digital safeguarding is becoming more regulated, more scrutinised and more closely tied to evidence of impact. Safer Internet Day remains an important moment in the calendar, but its impact is greatest when it is supported by safeguarding practice that operates all year round
I would welcome the conversation with trust leaders, safeguarding professionals and educators reflecting on how to keep strengthening this work.
Tania Mackie. Director, International, Safeguarding and Digital Transformation
