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Original poster

Scottish pupils 'sex survey' data advertised

67 replies

ArabellaScott · 04/02/2025 12:19

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yvr65dpgzo

'Data from a controversial survey which asked school pupils as young as 14 about their sexual experiences has been advertised for use by external researchers, without the explicit consent of children or parents, BBC Scotland has learned.
The Scottish government's Health and Wellbeing census hit the headlines in 2021 after asking highly personal questions of more than 130,000 school children, raising concerns among education experts and families.
Parents said they were not told the nature of the questions in advance and were not asked to agree that their children's private information could be shared.'

...
'However, the data is now being offered publicly to external researchers via the website of Research Data Scotland, a charity created by the Scottish government in 2021 with a stated aim of making it easier to access data around health and wellbeing.

Nine teenage school pupils walk towards a school building at the start of the day. They are all wearing coats and carrying bags. They have their backs to the camera

Scottish school pupil 'sex survey' data offered to researchers

The answers are being advertised for use by external researchers without the explicit consent of children or parents.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yvr65dpgzo

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Original poster
ArabellaScott · 24/02/2026 07:21

SecretSquirrelLoo · 23/02/2026 19:30

How many times do mothers get called bigots and then it turns out that…

actually, man filming himself wanking at work in a gimp suit isn’t suitable for a children’s charity

a male guide leader who poses in women’s underwear and with weapons should in fact be asked to leave

a survey which asks children inappropriate questions needs deleting?

Inconvenient pearl clutching mothers are just Karens always banging on about safeguarding.

OP posts:
SecretSquirrelLoo · 23/02/2026 19:32

ThatsNotMyTeen · 06/02/2025 21:04

I think in my younger son’s class there were more opt outs but in my elder son’s he was the only one in the class who was removed from the survey. I wonder if because he was older parents didn’t check school bags for letters the same way but I did as I had the younger child. My elder son was annoyed as the teachers were telling the kids it was to help the school and he felt singled out. He had a go at me when he came home.

it came around again in 2023 by which time I was only able to withdraw my younger child, as the elder one was 17.

Show your kids this article? They must be old enough to discuss it now and to see you were right!

SecretSquirrelLoo · 23/02/2026 19:30

How many times do mothers get called bigots and then it turns out that…

actually, man filming himself wanking at work in a gimp suit isn’t suitable for a children’s charity

a male guide leader who poses in women’s underwear and with weapons should in fact be asked to leave

a survey which asks children inappropriate questions needs deleting?

Original poster
ArabellaScott · 23/02/2026 08:38

Politics is combative, but the SNP have fallen into the trap of Us and Them black and white thinking. Evidenced by their rigid authoritatian insistence on party policy.

Makes for brittle and defensive government and shit legislation.

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GargoylesofBeelzebub · 22/02/2026 22:20

ArabellaScott · 22/02/2026 14:06

Update: theyve deleted all data and won"t do it again. How much money was pissed down the drain this time, because they won"t listen when people raise concerns?

There’s a bit of a pattern here with Scotgov. They won’t “take lessons” from anyone. Fucking disgrace.

I withdrew my kids from the survey.

Original poster
ArabellaScott · 22/02/2026 17:11

Sure there's room for a Terffest.

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Igmum · 22/02/2026 15:47

ArabellaScott · 22/02/2026 14:10

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3097zj50lyo

Another pound for the 'terfs were right' jar.

That must be one hell of a big jar by now. I’d love to splurge it all on one big Terven holiday so I can meet you all (before we all move in together on that Amazonian island) but I guess we’d better hand it over to ongoing worthy cases.

myplace · 22/02/2026 14:15

It’s hard to understand how the people who make the laws, the people who are actually responsible for it all, can repeatedly get it so wrong. It’s their bread and butter. Basic stuff.

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Original poster
ArabellaScott · 22/02/2026 14:06

Update: theyve deleted all data and won"t do it again. How much money was pissed down the drain this time, because they won"t listen when people raise concerns?

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Original poster
ArabellaScott · 18/02/2025 13:45

Director of Connect:

'"If the parents that initially raised this issue were listened to at the time then these matters could have been properly dealt with years ago."

<cough cough>

OP posts:
Original poster
ArabellaScott · 18/02/2025 13:45

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd6467p17jjo

'A review of a controversial school sex survey which was first requested almost three years ago is to be published in the next month, the Scottish government has said.

It comes after the boss of the UK's Office of Statistics Regulation (OSR) wrote to them demanding that the long-awaited review be published within 30 days.

The Scottish government's Health and Wellbeing census first hit the headlines in 2021 after asking pupils as young as 14 about their sexual experiences.
The OSR wrote to the Scottish government in 2022 warning that they had "underestimated the significance" the survey would have for parents and calling for a review of how the questions were designed and the way it was tested.

In a strongly-worded letter seen by BBC Scotland News, the director of the OSR, Ed Humpherson, has now demanded that the government publish the review within 30 days.'
...
'In response, the Scottish government said it would publish the review within the 30-day deadline.
It also said the chief statistician for Scotland - Alastair McAlpine - would reply to Mr Humpherson's letter shortly.'

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Hoardasurass · 09/02/2025 13:52

I'm really not happy about that statement from jenny gilruth. It sounds as though she's looking for a way to keep gathering the data only without parental outcry or atleast without parents ability to stop them.

Scottish pupils 'sex survey' data advertised
RoamingGnome · 09/02/2025 08:35

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98ym82nd81o

Good news! Should never have happened and a massive failure of care to children who have / are being sexually abused, but when did the Scottish government care about them?

Pupils walking through a school playground, carrying books and bags. The school uniform is blue. You cannot see their faces.

Access to 'sex survey' data paused by Sottish government

BBC Scotland News found data from the survey is being advertised for use by external researchers.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98ym82nd81o

SinnerBoy · 08/02/2025 22:35

Thanks for all the legal, safeguarding and GDPR information and explanations.

I'd like to summarise this questionnaire very crudely.

If one child asks:

"So miss, do you like anal?"

And the teacher, naturally, is outraged and orders Jenny / Johnny out, what defence do they have when thd kid says:

"Why am I in trouble? You've asked me that and told me to write the answer down."

AnSolas · 08/02/2025 15:53

ArabellaScott · 08/02/2025 15:02

https://www.cypcs.org.uk/about/commissioner/

Worth writing to the CC and asking for an audit?

I am nasty/mean add in a FOI to see if it was on anyones agenda and what the outcome was.🤷‍♀️

BonfireLady · 08/02/2025 15:08

ArabellaScott · 08/02/2025 15:02

https://www.cypcs.org.uk/about/commissioner/

Worth writing to the CC and asking for an audit?

I would say so. Particularly if you're a parent of one of those children. Maybe an organisation like Sex Matters could coordinate a letter on their behalf. The Scottish survey falls under "human rights" in so far as children have rights to be safeguarded effectively.

Given it's already made it in the press with the BBC article, now is the time to keep the story going.

BonfireLady · 08/02/2025 15:04

AnSolas · 08/02/2025 14:41

The politicans will get a data not found answer.

The Information Commissioner's Office is set up from "data subject" funding to do a specific job.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/advice-and-services/audits/

Who can request an audit?
Audits can be carried out at public and private companies, public authorities and government departments. The Information Commissioner has adopted a
□ risk-based,
□ proportionate and
□ targeted approach to audit activities and follows a
□ by-exception approach to reporting.

¤ Tracking the sex life of a 14 year old and retaining that data throughout the life of the child x number of childrens data x possible data breach
¤ principal of why the State has choosen to tacking the sex life of all of the children in Scotland
¤ one database design->usage->distruction
¤ nope. They are children. the IOC should not expect a child to make a complaint when the IOC has extra obligations due to the child being a child.

We welcome requests for audits but we will focus on those areas we feel we will have the
□ biggest impact and
□ organisations who would benefit the most from an
□ independent assessment of their compliance with data protection legislation.

That one database ticks a whole lot of boxes

Schotland has a Childrens Commissioner at a minimum if the IOC wont act the CC should request a by-exception audit.

Show quote history

Schotland has a Childrens Commissioner at a minimum if the IOC wont act the CC should request a by-exception audit.

👍👍👍

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AnSolas · 08/02/2025 14:41

BonfireLady · 08/02/2025 13:09

At the very least, I'd like to see an opposition politician in both Westminster and Holyrood explicitly ask each government if GDPR law has been broken/misused.

Edited

The politicans will get a data not found answer.

The Information Commissioner's Office is set up from "data subject" funding to do a specific job.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/advice-and-services/audits/

Who can request an audit?
Audits can be carried out at public and private companies, public authorities and government departments. The Information Commissioner has adopted a
□ risk-based,
□ proportionate and
□ targeted approach to audit activities and follows a
□ by-exception approach to reporting.

¤ Tracking the sex life of a 14 year old and retaining that data throughout the life of the child x number of childrens data x possible data breach
¤ principal of why the State has choosen to tacking the sex life of all of the children in Scotland
¤ one database design->usage->distruction
¤ nope. They are children. the IOC should not expect a child to make a complaint when the IOC has extra obligations due to the child being a child.

We welcome requests for audits but we will focus on those areas we feel we will have the
□ biggest impact and
□ organisations who would benefit the most from an
□ independent assessment of their compliance with data protection legislation.

That one database ticks a whole lot of boxes

Schotland has a Childrens Commissioner at a minimum if the IOC wont act the CC should request a by-exception audit.

Audits

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/advice-and-services/audits

BonfireLady · 08/02/2025 13:14

AnSolas · 08/02/2025 11:40

IMO the bigger the organisation and the harder it is to force personal ownership (sack) the more difficult it is to get staff worry about the bus.

People make decisions.
They make different choices when they will be personally impacted.

Authorising with no risk of self harm (pay fine, job loss, jail) on an "Unknown, unknown" is easy.
Its forcing the individual to take ownership at each level that is the problem.
"someone else" did the a risk assessment process that I rely on when I have know idea what was done is a culture.

Show quote history

"someone else" did the a risk assessment process that I rely on when I have know idea what was done is a culture.

Yep. This is key. Every Data Protection Officer in the cascade of assessments (the survey provider, the LA, the school) has a separate obligation to validate individually that what is being done is within GDPR. Each role within that chain of data processor, data owner etc has its own obligations. It's not good enough to say "the survey people said it was fine so we handed the children's details over on that basis", yet that is presumably exactly what happened. It would be interesting to see the DPAs (Data Protection Assessments) for each organisation.

To add: I'm guessing the survey providers told the LAs and schools that they could "use this DPA boilerplate and adapt it if you need to", thus setting up a situation where they make it look sufficiently thorough that the LAs and schools think "we don't really understand public task exemption but this is all for the children's benefit and they are the experts"... and they push all risk onto the schools and LAs because they are the ones that are handing over the data.

BonfireLady · 08/02/2025 13:09

At the very least, I'd like to see an opposition politician in both Westminster and Holyrood explicitly ask each government if GDPR law has been broken/misused.

BonfireLady · 08/02/2025 13:06

AnSolas · 08/02/2025 12:52

BonfireLady

As with the BeeWell survey, it's going to come down to a privacy law expert who also understands scientific research methodology being able to prove that this survey did not meet the criteria for "public task" under GDPR. I'm neither of these things but I can't imagine it would. Irrespective of the inappropriate question content (which obviously also needs addressing), there are other, opt-in methods that could be used to do surveys.

I take a different view DP is a legal requirement so carrying out a census/ mass collection is or should be a high bar.

Would the LA circulate the same census to their adult population; if so, what % need reply to get reliable data.

So in the design stage the named decision makers should have had document

Data Protection Our Obligation to prove "Public Task".
Sub section
▪︎ Scope
▪︎▪︎Do we need use a sample or use the total population
::: we decided to collect from the total population.
▪︎▪︎ ▪︎ Why we need to collect data from 100% of the population
:::: Population sampling works however we decided to spend extra public funds to ........

No matter the outcome the decision makers had that scope obligation. Failure to comply with the law should not be rewarded

As for a LA with no method framework or no expert, they can ask can we get the same outcome using a different way.
Yes always, because sampling has proven to be effective.

If I understand your post correctly, I think we're saying the same thing just from a different angle:

That it's reasonable to conclude that what they have done (both this survey and the BeeWell one... see more details in the linked thread) has broken GDPR law.

AnSolas · 08/02/2025 12:52

BonfireLady

As with the BeeWell survey, it's going to come down to a privacy law expert who also understands scientific research methodology being able to prove that this survey did not meet the criteria for "public task" under GDPR. I'm neither of these things but I can't imagine it would. Irrespective of the inappropriate question content (which obviously also needs addressing), there are other, opt-in methods that could be used to do surveys.

I take a different view DP is a legal requirement so carrying out a census/ mass collection is or should be a high bar.

Would the LA circulate the same census to their adult population; if so, what % need reply to get reliable data.

So in the design stage the named decision makers should have had document

Data Protection Our Obligation to prove "Public Task".
Sub section
▪︎ Scope
▪︎▪︎Do we need use a sample or use the total population
::: we decided to collect from the total population.
▪︎▪︎ ▪︎ Why we need to collect data from 100% of the population
:::: Population sampling works however we decided to spend extra public funds to ........

No matter the outcome the decision makers had that scope obligation. Failure to comply with the law should not be rewarded

As for a LA with no method framework or no expert, they can ask can we get the same outcome using a different way.
Yes always, because sampling has proven to be effective.