Online Safeguarding for Teachers: Misogyny, Harm & Bystander Action
Head of Marketing
Life Lessons
Online safeguarding remains a core priority for UK schools in 2025. Young people move through digital spaces that are fast-paced, heavily personalised and increasingly shaped by AI and algorithmic content delivery. Alongside positive and creative communities online, some pupils also encounter harmful or unhealthy narratives, including misogyny, pressure, bullying, coercion, and content designed to shock or provoke.
The updated RSHE statutory guidance (July 2025) makes clear that schools must prepare pupils to recognise harmful behaviour, understand how online influence works, and develop the confidence and skills to act safely as active bystanders.
Misogyny online: why it matters for RSHE and safeguarding
Misogyny online can shape how young people understand relationships, boundaries and gender expectations, even when exposure is brief, indirect or mixed with humour. It contributes to normalising disrespect, hostility or inequality between genders, which can spill over into peer interactions, relationship choices and school culture. Online sexism, like all discrimination, affects people’s ability to feel safe, form meaningful connections and maintain healthy and respectful relationships.
While misogynistic influencers do exist, research from Demos (2025) shows a more complex reality: young people navigate a blend of Healthy, Hyper and Harmful content, and are not uniformly influenced by extreme figures. Some actively reject misogynistic messages, while others encounter them passively through memes, jokes or peer-shared content.
This nuance highlights the importance of engaging meaningfully with young people about these issues, rather than taking a purely punitive position. School staff must be careful not to make assumptions, even when pupils share views that are challenging. In the classroom, a balance should be created between ensuring the emotional and physical safety of staff and students, as well as ensuring that conversations are not automatically closed down, with no possibility of discourse. SLT may want to make clear the process by which staff can call for support and intervention from colleagues to assist them with this process, ensuring that no-one feels isolated.
Although it is important to consider the many different sides of this issue, from a safeguarding perspective, even subtle online misogyny increases the risk of:
- peer-to-peer harassment
- sexist or degrading comments in group chats
- pressure, coercion or controlling behaviour
- normalisation of harmful stereotypes
- reduced empathy in peer relationships
- tolerance of disrespectful or unsafe behaviour
This is why the updated RSHE guidance requires schools to teach pupils about respectful relationships, the impact of stereotypes, harmful online norms and how digital content shapes expectations and behaviour.
RSHE therefore plays a critical role in helping pupils:
- recognise unhealthy attitudes
- understand how online content influences real-world behaviour
- spot early warning signs of disrespect or hostility
- practise communicating boundaries
- challenge harmful behaviour safely and respectfully
- become active bystanders when they witness misogyny
Life Lessons’ Anti-Misogyny in 2025 Teacher Guidance provides practical tools and scenarios to support teachers with this work, ensuring discussions remain age-appropriate and grounded in research.
Understanding online harm in 2025
Online harm looks different in 2025 than it did even a few years ago. Pupils are navigating feeds shaped by AI, personalisation and fast-moving peer culture, which means harmful content often appears gradually, subtly or unexpectedly. It may not be extreme; it may not even look harmful at first glance, and this is what makes it harder to recognise.
Instead of a single “type” of harmful content, young people describe a blended mix of:
- edited or AI-generated images that distort reality
- peer pressure in group chats, especially around image-sharing
- sexualised or shock content circulating for humour
- deepfakes of celebrities and influencers
- misinformation and conspiracy-style posts presented as “fact”
- gendered expectations that reinforce stereotypes
The Demos (2025) research reinforces this complexity. It shows that teenagers move between different content fluidly and often without noticing when the tone shifts. Exposure is not always deliberate; sometimes it’s algorithmic, sometimes peer-driven, sometimes accidental.
The latest RSHE guidance emphasises teaching pupils how to interpret online content, not simply avoid it. Pupils now need to understand:
- how and why content is created
- how manipulation and editing work
- what pressure, coercion and unhealthy influence look like
- what the law says about image-sharing
- how to get support when something feels wrong
Life Lessons’ scenario-based RSHE lessons help pupils practise these skills safely — exploring real-world situations without needing to show harmful material.
Active bystanders: a core skill for online safety
Being an active bystander is one of the most powerful safety skills pupils can develop. Young people witness far more online than adults ever see: group-chat drama, sexist jokes, exclusion, pressure to send images, hostile comments and “banter” that sometimes crosses the line.
Most pupils don’t want harm to happen, they just aren’t always sure what to do when they see it.
That’s where active bystander education matters. It helps pupils recognise:
- when behaviour is not ok
- how to interrupt harm safely
- how to support a friend privately
- when to report something
- how to avoid reinforcing harmful behaviour online
The updated RSHE guidance supports this approach by requiring pupils to learn how to communicate boundaries, challenge harmful stereotypes and seek help when someone else is unsafe.
In other words, active bystander skills turn RSHE principles into protective behaviour.
These are safe strategies that work online as well as offline, and they help pupils feel confident doing the right thing without risking their own safety.
Online safeguarding in 2025 requires a realistic, research-informed approach. Misogyny and online harm remain real risks, but young people’s experiences are varied, not universally extreme. RSHE gives pupils the knowledge, judgement and confidence to navigate digital spaces safely and respectfully. Life Lessons’ resources support schools to meet the statutory guidance and strengthen protective skills in every classroom.
Life Lessons works with schools to build a safer digital culture through a complete suite of support: curriculum resources, behaviour interventions, scenario-based lessons and staff CPD. Our programmes give teachers the confidence and tools to meet the updated RSHE guidance and respond effectively to emerging online harms.
