As part of Click Clever, Click Safe, the government's new e-safety strategy, lessons in using the internet safely will be compulsory for all primary schoolchildren in England from 2011.

Currently only secondary school pupils receive internet safety teaching. The lessons will be delivered as part of primary pupils' personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE).

Although the announcement has generally been welcomed, its inclusion in existing PSHE time has also been criticised. Anastasia de Waal, of think tank Civitas, warns that teachers would "cover a lot with not much depth".

She said that it would be much better for teachers to talk about everyday situations, including websites, rather than teaching it in isolation.