Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman has issued a clarification that naked images sent between students can be a safeguarding issue.
Yesterday, in a hearing of the Commons Education Select Committee, Ms Spielman appeared to suggest that male students sending naked photographs of themselves was not a safeguarding issue.
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Ms Spielman said that girls who received naked images of boys found them “contemptible” and “laugh that off”, adding, “they would not want to be pulled into sort of safeguarding procedures by reason of being sent a photograph that they think is simply contemptible”.
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Asked by MP Ian Mearns whether this was not a safeguarding issue for the boys sending these images, Ms Spielman said there was a “spectrum” of sexual misconduct, “from the truly evil and appalling at one extreme all the way down to things which are essentially clumsy explorations of emerging adolescent sexuality”.
Today, Ms Spielman issued a clarification of her remarks on social media and said that sending of naked images was a safeguarding issue.
In a tweet, she said: “There’s been lots of discussion on here about what I said at a select committee hearing yesterday - I’d like to clarify a few things.”
There’s been lots of discussion on here about what I said at a select committee hearing yesterday - I’d like to clarify a few things: pic.twitter.com/jwofIwaC0B
- Amanda Spielman (@amanda_spielman) June 16, 2021
She said that at the hearing, “at one point I was questioned about how schools should respond to incidents where naked images are sent to girls and my comments have been interpreted by some people to mean that I don’t view this as a safeguarding issue. That isn’t what I said and that isn’t what I think.”
“Sexual abuse or harassment is a safeguarding issue. The challenge for schools is how to respond appropriately to individual incidents while still recognising it’s an endemic problem. This will often require a behavioural sanction for the perpetrator alongside the education that we all know is so necessary. That was the point of my discussion with the committee.”
“In our review, girls told us that one reason they don’t report harassment is that they are concerned about the next steps that would follow; others said that dealing with the problem was ‘like playing whack-a-mole’ because it was so widespread.
“This is a difficult issue for schools - clearly there needs to be appropriate sanctions against this behaviour and there will be cases that need to be referred to other authorities. The central recommendation of our review was that schools must assume abuse and harassment is happening to their pupils, whether or not they have had specific reports. They need to create and sustain a culture that does not tolerate it.
“I’ve spent the last week speaking about our review and its troubling findings. I’m pleased the review has had the attention that the subject deserves.”
