Online hate speech represents a very real challenge for teachers

We know that recorded hate crime has increased significantly in recent years (from 45,000 in 2013/14 to over 80,000 in 2016/17) and that 78 per cent of it has been classified as race-hate crime. The think tank Demos has analysed a sharp increase in online hate speech on Twitter. To take just one example, in a study of online Islamophobia during July 2016 Demos identified 468 anti-Islamic tweets per day in the UK – or nearly 15,000 for the month. 

Of course, many teachers and many parents are deeply worried about this intrusion into young people’s lives, but – unlike them – we are often unfamiliar with the virtual world of cyberspace. How should we occupy this strange terrain without invading the precious private identities of our children?