Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the three representatives from the National Anti-Bullying Coalition. I wish to ask Mr. Larkin a few questions. He referred to the Limerick school, which is a fairly good example. What happened there was that the school principal suspended some students for their behaviour, which seems like a common sense way of dealing with a particular case. Mr. Larkin mentioned the need for the DPP to issue guidelines to Garda stations so that somebody with a complaint about cyberbullying can go to them. Has that been done in any other countries? Are there any other models we can copy in that respect?

Mr. Dwyer referred to technological solutions to cyberbullying. We had hearings here where we asked similar questions of other people. Is it possible for an ordinary citizen to track or trace the source of an offensive or bullying tweet, which appears to be anonymous? Is that technology available to the ordinary citizen?

Mr. Dwyer referred to those who indulge in this kind of behaviour on the Internet as cyberscum. Perhaps he could elaborate on that.