Digital Safeguarding Conference
🏷️ £235-470 – discounted rate for additional members
🎧 All those working with children, young people or vulnerable individuals, including DSLs, DSOs and DDSLs
📍 Online
🎥 Watch live or on catch up
As technology continues to shape how we live, learn, and connect, and the digital landscape becomes increasingly complex, there are implications for safeguarding professionals that need to be understood and addressed.
At our online Digital Safeguarding Conference, we’ll be considering the theme Navigating risk, power, and protection in the digital age, in what promises to be a dynamic event bringing together leading voices in research, policy, and practice.
Highlights include
- The future of digital safeguarding
- Understanding digital risk and radicalisation,
- Practical tools for managing digital risk workshop
- Academic research spotlight
- AI, data and digital ethics in safeguarding
- Policy into practice workshop
- Leadership panel on privacy and safety
- Building digital trust and agency
EVENT PROGRAMME
09:00 – 09:05 Welcome from Director of SACPA
09:05 – 09:15 Introduction to the Current and Emerging Risks
In the age of hyperconnectivity, safeguarding both children and adults can be a challenge. Our speaker will set the scene for emerging issues internationally as well at the UK.
Speaker: Bharti Patel, Human Rights Advocate and Former CEO ECPAT UK
09:15 – 09:45 Keynote: AI, Data and Digital Ethics in Safeguarding
Our speaker will draw on her broad international experience working with schools. Our speaker will draw our attention to the policy and procedural safeguarding requirements to keep schools compliant in a rapidly evolving space.
Speaker: Kirra Pendergast, Ctrl+Shft
09:45 – 10:00 Break
10:00 – 10:45 Understanding Digital Risk and Radicalisation
Our expert speaker will highlight the pathways to radicalisation including trauma, the intersection of gaming, gender, and online violence and challenging toxic narratives while promoting positive masculinity, and finally early identification within schools and educational institutions.
Speaker: Dr Juncal Fernandez-Garayzabal, PhD
10:45 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 11:30 Balancing Parenting and Children’s Leisure in Boarding in the age of Digital Connectivity
This session explores the importance of setting healthy digital habits at a young age that includes setting limits and boundaries, while acknowledging the benefits of the virtual world virtual world provides fun, creative learning and a space for relaxation.
Speaker: Tom Hollyer, Housemaster, Uppingham School
11:30 – 12:00 Digital Parenting
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 14:00 Keynote: The Future of Digital Safeguarding
This session will focus on emerging online harms especially related to AI, deepfakes, and what is new in Online Safety in 2026, and what we should be planning for.
Speaker: Karl Hopwood, Independent E-Safety Consultant and SACPA Chair
14:00 – 14:15 Break
14:15 – 14:45 Workshop: Policy into Practice
Option 1: Developing Robust Digital Safeguarding Policies
Practical templates for schools, charities, and local authorities
Option 2: Embedding Digital Literacy and Resilience in Training
Equipping staff and learners to recognise manipulation online
Speakers: Kwan Hoong CEO, SEQRD & Arabella SEQRD
14:45 – 15:00 Break
15:00 – 15:45 Thought Leadership Panel: “Privacy and Safety”
Speaker: Tanya Kathuria, Digital LinkedIn Influencer
15:45 – 16:00 Break
16:00 – 16:15 Safeguarding Neurodivergent Learners in a Digital World
Our speaker will share findings from their qualitative research with children who are neurodivergent and young people with mental health challenges
Speaker: Paula Bradbury, Trust & Safety Principal SME & Criminologist
16:15 Conference close
Speakers:
Dr Juncal Fernandez-Garayzabal, PhD
Juncal is Development & Program Manager at the Counter Extremism Project and a fellow at the European Foundation for South Asian Studies. A linguist by training, her PhD examined parallels between human trafficking and extremist recruitment. She has led nine international rehabilitation and reintegration projects for individuals involved in extremism, engaging directly with offenders and at-risk individuals worldwide. With experience across Latin America, Africa, and global institutions including Georgetown University and UNICEF, she combines research and field practice to advance prevention, deradicalization, and peacebuilding efforts. Her work is widely published and frequently presented at multilateral forums.
Kirra Pendergast, Ctrl+Shft
Kirra Pendergast is an internationally recognised leader in human-digital risk intelligence. With over 30 years at the intersection of cybersecurity, governance, and education, she has advised governments, corporations, and schools across five continents. Founder of Safe on Social and Ctrl + Shft, her frameworks shape policy and culture in over 1,200 organisations worldwide. A survivor of cyber abuse and a neurodivergent systems thinker, Kirra is a sought-after keynote speaker and expert witness featured by BBC, CNN, Bloomberg, and The Washington Post. Based in Florence, she champions digital safety and ethical technology as essential human rights.
Tom Hollyer, Housemaster, Uppingham School
Tom Hollyer is an experienced Housemaster, Geography teacher, and senior pastoral leader with a strong track record across leading UK boarding schools. Currently Housemaster of Fircroft at Uppingham School, he oversees the pastoral and academic welfare of 56 boys aged 13–18 and contributes to whole-school wellbeing, outreach, and recruitment. A Fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Institute of Boarding, Tom is also a qualified mindfulness teacher and Youth Mental Health First Aider. His career spans roles at Caldicott and RGS High Wycombe, where he led boarding teams, strengthened safeguarding practice, and shaped thriving pastoral cultures.
Karl Hopwood, Independent E-Safety Consultant and SACPA Chair
Karl Hopwood is an independent online safety expert and member of the UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS), where he sits on several working groups. He serves on the advisory board of the UK Safer Internet Centre and the Roblox Trust and Safety board, and has advised TikTok on harmful challenges. Karl works closely with Internet Matters, Ofcom, and schools across Europe to promote digital literacy and safer online behaviours. A former headteacher, he has consulted for INSAFE for 19 years, coordinating helplines and awareness centres. He currently chairs Childnet International and SACPA, and previously chaired the Marie Collins Foundation.
Paula Bradbury, Trust & Safety Principal SME & Criminologist
Paula Bradbury is a lecturer in Criminology and Policing Practice at the University of Middlesex. She is also the Senior Researcher at the Centre for Abuse & Trauma Studies engaging in multiple research projects and bid writing opportunities, the results have led to several successful grants awarded. She is a doctoral researcher studying for a PhD in Criminology, exploring the appropriateness of policy and policing practice in response to adolescents sharing nudes.
Bharti Patel, Human Rights Advocate and Former CEO ECPAT UK
Tanya Kathuria, Digital LinkedIn Influencer
