The 2024-25 Official Statistics on Domestic abuse recorded by the police in Scotland will be published by Spring 2026. A specific date will be announced at least four weeks in advance via the Official statistics: forthcoming publications - gov.scot.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40861 on 28 October 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-40861 on 28 October 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring all children and young people receive high quality relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education, which is an integral part of the health and wellbeing area of the Scottish curriculum. Curriculum for Excellence is the national approach to learning and teaching providing flexibility for teachers to deliver a curriculum tailored to local needs within an overarching framework.

The RSHP experiences and outcomes specify the need for children and young people to gain knowledge appropriate to their age and stage of education. RSHP education is intended to help children and young people build positive relationships while requiring that key aspects are presented in an objective, balanced and sensitive manner including in respect of the law on sexual behaviour. Teachers therefore have the flexibility to include content on consent and digital harm if they feel it appropriate to a RSHP lesson.

There are many resources available to teachers to help them deliver meaningful RSHP learning and these are summarised on Education Scotland’s website. One of these resources, www.rshp.scot, was includes learning activities on consent and how children and young people can learn to be safe and happy online. In addition, the Scottish Government also published a resource for professionals to help them support young people aged 11 to 18 in their understanding of healthy relationships and consent. The Key Messages for Young People on Healthy Relationships and Consent reiterate age-appropriate messages on the themes of consent, bodily autonomy and mutual respect.

The Scottish Government has also provided support for the development of the Digital Discourse Initiative (DDI) by Time for Inclusive Education and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). The DDI online learning provides teachers and school staff with an improved knowledge and understanding of how modern social media platforms work and their role in facilitating online disinformation and prejudicial content. We have also published a national framework for schools to help tackle sexual harassment and gender based violence. Misogynistic behaviour has been identified as an emerging concern within schools. The publication of this framework demonstrates our commitment to take swift action to respond to current concerns and ensure pupils and staff are properly supported. We are in the process of commissioning an independent review to establish further areas for improvement. We continue to take forward a range of additional actions in schools to address gender based violence and sexual harassment. Our Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Scotland Programme is working to tackle gender stereotyping and attitudes that condone violence against women and girls. We also continue to implement ‘Equally Safe’, Scotland’s strategy to prevent and eradicate all forms of violence against women and girls.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that children and young people in Scotland are safe and supported in their online lives. We recognise the significant risks posed by harmful online content and the importance of robust regulation to protect children from exploitation, abuse, and exposure to inappropriate material.

It is important to note that regulation of the internet is a reserved matter to the UK Government, however we have previously successfully engaged on its Online Safety Act to strengthen protections for young people.

We welcome the strengthened regulatory framework introduced through the Online Safety Act, which empowers Ofcom to enforce new safety standards on digital platforms.

Ministers met Ofcom in August last year to emphasise the responsibility of tech firms to deliver effective safeguards for young people online, and in June this year to discuss ongoing implementation and regulation of the Online Safety Act and possible further action. The Scottish Government has also responded directly to a number of Ofcom consultations associated with implementation of the Online Safety Act, including on Codes of Practice on Illegal Harms and Protection of Children.

We will continue to engage with the UK Government and Ofcom on the implementation of this important piece of legislation and to press for stronger protections to help keep children and young people in Scotland safe online, while allowing them to benefit from all the opportunities afforded by the online world.

Scottish legislation relating to sexual offences is used to prosecute both online and offline harm, including grooming, sexual communication, making or sharing indecent imagery or sexual exploitation. It is an operational police matter to investigate alleged offences and for independent prosecutors to decide what action to take upon receiving reports of crimes being committed. In cases that are prosecuted, it is for the independent court to sentence upon conviction within the legal framework.

The Scottish Government is committed to preventing all types of harmful sexual behaviour involving children and young people. We recognise that children and young people displaying harmful sexual behaviour are a complex group with diverse needs which cannot be addressed by a ‘one size fits all’ model of service provision.

To inform our response, Scottish Government set up a Harmful Sexual Behaviour Delivery Group which carried out work to deliver on the recommendations made by the Expert Group on Preventing Sexual offending Involving Children and Young People in 2020.

As part of this work the group developed a detailed guidance document, published in 2024: Working with children and young people who have displayed Harmful Sexual Behaviour: Evidence based guidance for professionals working with children and young people, which focuses on contextual safeguarding, assessment and intervention. The guidance provides professionals with the information and tools to identify what sexual behaviour in children and young people is harmful, steps they should take if they identify harmful behaviour, and what approaches can help to support prevention of this behaviour. The guidance also includes practical case studies with examples of behaviours and steps taken to mitigate harm when a child has presented behaviour which could be harmful to another child.

The Scottish Government also fund the Lucy Faithfull Foundation Scotland and the Children and Young People's Centre for Justice to run a regular forum for practitioners working with children and young people, to support them to identify and intervene when children and young people display harmful sexual behaviour.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of youth perpetrated sexual offences as the data we receive from Police Scotland for the Recorded Crime statistics is a simple count of the number of recorded crimes by crime type.

Police Scotland have provided the following management information on the number of people under the age of 18 who were accused of any sexual crime between 1st January 2025 to 30th September 2025.

It should be noted that the totals presented in the following table for crime types (and overall) are not necessarily all unique individuals as it is possible an accused may have committed more than one sexual crime during the period. Furthermore, the table below is not a total of sexual crimes as some crimes may have had multiple perpetrators.

Number of Accused aged under 18 at time of Offence

The Scottish Government does not propose introducing additional legal duties specifically requiring parents and carers to take reasonable steps to prevent and address harmful behaviour by their children online. Instead, our approach focuses on supporting families through education, guidance, and early intervention.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of preventing children and young people from being involved in harmful behaviour, including online. We are committed to promoting the wellbeing and safety of all children through a rights-based approach, as set out in our national child protection policies and the Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) framework.

Prevention is key to tackling harmful behaviour, including online and we are taking a range of actions to raise awareness about online safety with parents and carers, including providing advice and support through the Scottish Government’s Parent Club website: Online Behaviour & Safety | Parent Club and Online Behaviour & Safety | Parent Club and through Education Scotland’s Digital learning, digital life and digital work | My child | Parentzone Scotland | Education Scotland.

The We’re here for you | Parent Club website provides advice and information for parents and carers on online safety, including signposting to support when things go wrong. This includes advice on what to do if there are concerns about children being involved in harmful behaviour. There is also advice on what to do if there are concerns about a child being involved in bullying others.

Parentzone Scotland | Education Scotland provides information and advice primarily for parents and carers about education in Scotland from early years to beyond school. The site includes practical ideas to support learning at home in a variety of curriculum areas such as literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing and science, as well as information on additional support needs; and also tips on how parents can get involved in their child’s school and education. It includes information, guidance and signposting for parents including on harmful online behaviour. The website also has information on how parents and carers can help protect their child and understand online dangers.

We continue to work with partners across education, health, social work, and law enforcement to strengthen child protection responses, including addressing inappropriate or harmful online behaviour. This includes:

• The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland, which outlines responsibilities for professionals and agencies.
• Supporting the implementation of the Online Safety Act, which places new duties on tech companies to protect children from harmful content online.
• Promoting digital literacy and responsible online behaviour through schools

We will continue to monitor developments in this area and engage with stakeholders to ensure our policies remain responsive to emerging challenges.

The Scottish Government last engaged with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on the 9 October to update them on the specific actions we have taken following the Supreme Court judgment.

The Scottish Government welcomes continued engagement with the EHRC relating to the Supreme Court judgment, given their role as regulator of the Equality Act 2010.