Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and thank the Chairman for the opportunity to be here, as I am not a member of the committee. I am very grateful for the attention this subject is getting. I take all the positive aspects on board but I am here to speak about the abuse of social media.

I am a mother of teenagers and I do not know any second level teachers or mother of teenagers who is not tearing hair out because of the abuse taking place on social media. The Minister is correct in that social media or the Internet did not lead to the invention of bullying or harassment but it has worsened it. Our children are living in a parallel universe to the teachers in classrooms. There is an absolute responsibility on parents and educators but they cannot keep up.

Take, for example, the form called "fraping" where you are raped on Facebook. It happens where a youngster has his or her status open on Facebook but another person posts a message as if the owner wrote it. The message could be of a sexual nature so it goes out into the world as if a person said it. This type of thing must stop and some controls must be put in place. What about sexting? Sexting means texting sexual images. Recently I heard that sexting is a criminal offence. Can the Minister verify that? I also heard recently that everything that one does on the Internet leaves a digital footprint. Is it true that even if images or text messages are erased they can be found again? Everybody needs to work together to solve the problem and that is parents, teachers and youngsters. We need a set of guidelines and a place to report cases to until we have a system that is similar to the Press Ombudsman for the print and broadcast media. We need to know that sanctions exist. Until we have that, then the public will not be adequately educated or protected. Is it within the Minister's remit to provide a set of guidelines for people who have been hurt and damaged by social media, particularly youngsters?

A member referred to counsellors in schools. I am quite familiar with counsellors and they are very busy working with youngsters who have been hurt by abuse delivered via social media. I accept that there are good things happening.