Joan Freeman (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation. It was very interesting. I need so much more time to absorb the report and to get my head around it. To follow on from something Deputy Sherlock said, the Department is depending on the goodwill of the teacher to implement these cyberbullying safety procedures. That is chronically wrong. My daughter is a teacher. Teachers are up to their eyes in work. Therefore something should be done in order that each school has one person to go to in respect of cyberbullying and safety concerns. That is just a general comment.

As I said, I need more time to look over everything. I know the witnesses have given this report over a period of time. One of the things I notice is that the Lanzarote and Budapest conventions have not been ratified. Why have we not ratified them? That is my first question.

The previous Chairman of this committee, who is now a Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, Deputy Jim Daly, put in a request that children under a certain age would not be allowed iPhones, especially in schools, or that there would be some sort of legal impediment to children having the use of iPhones. I am not sure how far he went with that request. As Ms Niculescu said, children do not have the sensitivity or emotional intelligence to prevent themselves from doing what every other child is doing. I must talk to Deputy Daly about it. Would it have been good to progress the idea of banning iPhones up to a certain age, in particular in schools?

In my previous work I went around schools. I know how ignorant of cyberbullying issues parents can be. We just do not know. Even young parents have no idea of the enormous volume of danger there is for our children. They are always shocked and surprised. I am always asked how parents can stop their children being on the Internet. The first people who should be educated are the parents. They should be educated when their children are in primary school and before they have access to any phone. Once the parents know the dangers, and I mean the full range of dangers, they will be able to monitor their children. Children do not have the capability or capacity to monitor themselves before a certain age. By depending on them and on the goodwill of a teacher, perhaps, to take on these things, we leave our children open to a massive amount of abuse.