Digital literacy refers to the ability to access, understand, evaluate, create and communicate information using digital technologies in a safe and ethical way. As digital literacy is one of the basic skills of citizens in the 21st century, teachers ought to create a safe digital environment for their students. The digital safety of students through enhancing their digital literacy is the responsibility of teachers, who are required to cultivate appropriate skills in students for them to be able to manage risks when using internet. The digital literacy of teachers in the field of e-safety safeguards not only their own safety but also the safety of their students in primary school.

The present study aimed to investigate the knowledge and skills of future teachers on e-safety.

Fifty-nine (59) fourth-year students of the Department of Education and Social Work of the University of Patras participated. The participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire that included demographic questions and closed-ended questions on digital safety literacy of teachers. The questionnaire consists of five (5) parts concerning: demographic and professional characteristics of the participants, the degree of use of software for teaching needs, the degree of problems in the use of software for teaching needs, the level of basic knowledge and skills in the field of digital safety, the level of basic knowledge and skills in the field of digital safety through cognitive content questions with closed-ended answers.

The results revealed that most future teachers have a satisfactory level of knowledge concerning online risks and ways to face them but a high percentage of them do not have a satisfactory level of knowledge about hate speech on the internet and fake news. Future teachers have satisfactory knowledge of how to effectively prevent online risks for children and adolescents but they are not aware enough of portals related to e-safety.

Keywords: ICT, digital literacy, e-safety.