Welcome to this section of our website, dedicated to all things for professionals working with groups at risk of committing computer misuse offences. If you work in a school, or with children or young people as part of your job, then you’re in the right place!
Teaching & Schools
Keeping Children Safe in Education (September 2022) recognised – for the first time within education – the safeguarding risks around young people crossing the line into committing computer misuse offences. The 2025 version of KCSiE continued this (Annex B, pages 153-154) and Designated Safeguarding Leads are recommended to consider referring young people of concern in to the Cyber Choices programme.
Individuals of concern are often not even aware that their actions are illegal, so we need to support young people in making the right #CyberChoices in their use of technology. If you have concerns about a young person and their use of technology, learn more about the referral process here.
For our list of recommended activities to support the teaching of computing and positive online behaviours, click here. This is listed by Key Stage to make searching easier – everything from Foundation to Sixth Form is covered. We have even created our own engaging and interactive lesson plan for UKS2 and KS3 to teach about the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
Other Professionals
If you are working with any young people who have skills in computing and who are/may be at risk of computer misuse, then please do consider making a referral into Cyber Choices. You can find out more about why a Cyber Choices referral may be necessary and how these interventions can help, as well as finding out how to refer here.
If a referral isn’t suitable, we have pages with information about skills development and training and careers in cyber, to help direct their interests in positive directions. There are so many opportunities out there for individuals with the right skills and an interest in computing – and they aren’t all as technical as you might think!
We are always searching for more quality resources to add to our lists, so do keep checking back periodically for updates.
Staff Training
We offer free training sessions for partner organisations who work with groups at risk of computer misuse offences (primarily young people). Our training offer focuses on school staff, leaders and governors, as well as agencies such as Children’s Social Care, Youth Offending Services and CAMHS, to name but a few. We have worked with other charities and private organisations to raise awareness of the Cyber Choices programme in the past, so if you would like to know more, please email cyberchoices@serocu.police.uk or fill out the contact form at the bottom of our Referrals page.
Schools
If you work within a school, and you don’t already know about Cyber Choices, we offer free training sessions for Designated Safeguarding Leads, Headteachers and Senior Leadership and Governors. Drop an email to cyberchoices@serocu.police.uk to find out when the next sessions are taking place in your area.
If you have already received training and want to roll out the messaging to all staff in your school (or other organisation), the below video gives a summary of the input you were given, and lasts just under 20 minutes.
Resources mentioned in the video:
As always, we welcome feedback, so if you have any questions, comments or want to know more, please do drop us an email: cyberchoices@serocu.police.uk