Online Safety Taskforce Action Plan 2026/27

Boosting prevention

Boosting prevention by ensuring children and young people have the skills and resilience to engage safely online and make positive choices.

Children and young people have said that building their own resilience is one of the most important steps in protecting them from online harm. In addition, research shows that the children whose parents or carers are less engaged and/or that need support with their online activity are more at risk of experiencing harm online.

We are therefore taking action to support children and young people to build their resilience and stay safe online.

Actions

• In 2026-27 Scottish Government will invest in embedding digital literacy in our school environments covering responsible and healthy social media use, healthy gaming and online safety.
• In February 2026 we launched a campaign to tackle online misogyny to show young people that sexist online content leads to real-world harm to girls including the ones they know. A second strand of the campaign targeted adults, to make them aware of the scale of the issue and encourage them to start a conversation with children about the impact of misogynistic content. Building on this campaign, a second phase will be launched during the 16 days of activism against violence against women & girls in December 2026.
• A focus on digital health and safety within the Health and Wellbeing Curriculum Improvement Cycle along with digital skills and cyber resilience within the Technologies curriculum will support young people to navigate complex digital environments with confidence, agency, and critical awareness whilst aligning digital safety with broader health and wellbeing.
• In 2025-26, the Scottish Government funded the education charity Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) £71,144 to further develop and promote the Digital Discourse Initiative in schools, and will continue this for the next financial year 2026-27. This is an initiative that helps schools to equip children and young people with skills to navigate digital media and counter the impacts of disinformation and online hate.
• The Scottish Government guidance Respect for All: The National Approach to Anti-Bullying for Scotland’s Children and Young People, issued in 2024, makes clear that online bullying can be as damaging as in-person bullying and may have more serious consequences due to the digital footprint, lasting presence, group dynamics, and potential for illegality. We will fund respectme to support those working with children and young people to prevent and address bullying effectively, with funding of £310,480 in 2026-27 including provision of an e-Learning course on online bullying.
• Through the Violence Prevention Framework, the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit in partnership with Medics Against Violence and Youthlink Scotland developed the ‘Quit Fighting for Likes’ campaign to support young people to navigate social media safely and prevent violence. Launched in September 2024, and repeated in early 2025, the campaign will be run again in 2026-27.
• As part of a peer education programme: Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP), Education Scotland has developed several lessons in collaboration with young people and experts that explore online harm and how to prevent it. MVP is currently being delivered in around 240 secondary schools in Scotland and work will continue to further develop the programme across the country with adaptations made for ASN settings and youth work settings.
• We will update the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy Delivery Plan in summer 2026, to reflect the importance of online wellbeing and healthy social media use for young people. It will describe the actions we are taking on promoting good digital mental wellbeing, including access to resources of support such as Mind Yer Time, Aye Feel, Parent Club and Mind To Mind.
• We will continue to support the Cashback for Communities Programme including activities to support digital wellbeing, safe social media use, and the reduction of harm associated with gaming and gambling and Sextortion. CashBack for Communities phase 7 will run from April 2026 to March 2029.
• In October 2025 the Scottish Government published the world’s first systemic approach to dealing with health mis- and disinformation, our Health Information Integrity Strategy, with participants held accountable for 22 actions through strong governance arrangements. Scottish Government and partners are developing a range of tools to help identify, assess and treat false or misleading health narratives, enabling people to make the best possible decisions about their health.
• Learning from lived experience is central to a coherent and effective policy response to online violence against women and girls (VAWG). The tech-VAWG learning network was established by the Scottish Government in 2024. Funding to the Mhor Collective enables them to support collaboration and shared learning about technology facilitated VAWG. An understanding of the digital inclusion needs of women and girls who have experienced technology facilitated VAWG is being developed. Frontline workers are being supported to develop responses to survivors to improve support available to them.
• We will be innovative in our response to technological challenges such as misinformation, the addictive consumption of online content (“doom scrolling”), or the take-down of images; accessing capabilities such as CivTech where possible and building on the experience of initiatives such as Report Remove or Take It Down.