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Students will learn about the benefits and potential dangers of online activity in Grade 1 and about “sexting” in Grade 4 under Ontario’s revised sex education curriculum, which will be released Monday.

The Canadian Press obtained a copy of a “quick facts” guide for parents that will be released as part of the first update of the province’s health and physical education curriculum since 1998 – before smartphones and sexting became part of our vocabulary.

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The guide says students in Grades 1, 2 and 3 will learn initial searching skills and strategies for safe Internet use, including “how to get help for themselves or others if harassment or abuse happens either face-to-face or online.”

The primary grade students will also learn the difference between real and fictional violence, in the media or with online games, and “respectful communications” in the gym, classroom and schoolyard.

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Even some elementary school students have sent sexually explicit pictures of themselves to someone online, while 11 per cent of Grade 10 students and about 14 per cent of those in Grade 11 say they have sent a sext, according to a 2015 study, Young Canadians in a Wired World.