Safeguarding Children in the Digital Age
Online conference: 2.00pm-5.30pm
As the digital world continues to develop at a bewildering pace, so do the risks to children and young people’s safety and wellbeing. Safeguarding today requires all practitioners to be up to speed with emerging digital trends and threats.
The 9th Safeguarding Children in the Digital Age conference, organised by Children & Young People Now, takes place online on the afternoons of Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th January 2026.
We have secured some of the country’s leading experts and practitioners from organisations including the LSE, Ofcom, Information Commissioner’s Office and Childline, to equip you with the knowledge, skills and confidence to enable children and young people to stay safe in 2026 and beyond.
Through a number of CPD-accredited sessions, our speakers will provide you with actionable insights and top tips to implement in your work.
The online conference will cover:
• Tackling indecent image sharing and protecting children affected
• Keeping pace with AI, children’s use of it, and generated harms
• Understanding the language of grooming
• Tackling online misogyny and incel culture
• What professionals need to know about the dark web
• Protecting children from fake news
• How adolescents’ digital lives affect their mental health and what this means for professionals
• How online harm can result in traumatic responses
• Sharing personal information to safeguard children
• Building preventative education through the voice of the child
• Lessons so far from implementation of the Online Safety Act
• How children’s lives are shaped by the data they share and how attitudes towards privacy shift as they grow up
Who should attend:
• Local authority children's and families' service
• Designated Safeguarding Leads and deputies
• Heads of safeguarding and safeguarding managers
• LCSB chairs and members
• Primary and secondary school headteachers and deputies
• Heads of year
• Heads of youth services and youth service managers
• Early help teams
• Child protection teams
• Children's social workers
• Foster care and residential care managers
• Pastoral leads and subject heads
• Education welfare officers
• School governors
• Nursery owners and proprietors
• Nursery and children's centre managers
• Local authority early years heads
• Early years advisers
• CAMHS professionals
• Children's and young people's charities
• The academic community
• SEND professionals
• Educational psychologists
• School nurses