Professor Brian O'Neill:

I am happy to respond to that question. First, on a European level there has been a lot of investment in ensuring an ongoing dialogue with the key Internet industries. It was not the first initiative but the Vice-President in the previous Commission, Neelie Kroes, made a very specific point of establishing what was called the CEO coalition. It was a formal invitation to the CEOs of leading Internet companies to take Internet safety seriously on a European Union-wide basis and to support a series of initiatives where it was agreed that progress needed to be made. That process continues under different headings and different labels. Other stakeholders were involved as observers to the process. It was a demonstration that companies do take questions of safety and children's well-being as an important topic and that they are prepared to collaborate and co-operate. There are corporate social responsibility issues. There is a recognition in terms of the absolute centrality of technologies in day-to-day life and that the responsibility now weighs on all parties and providers in the process.

While many different issues arose from that, it has been judged to have been a very productive discussion. Similarly, in an Irish context, as part of the Internet content governance group we consulted very directly with industry. We held a series of bilateral meetings. The work of that group followed previous hearings by the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications in 2013, which similarly heard from industry on an ongoing basis about the priorities they were according to this and what they were prepared to contribute. All in all, I think there is very much a willingness to discuss. Ultimately, businesses are private concerns and how they develop and shape policies will be informed by the wider environment. They do, of course, have a responsibility to run a business, but I have found no lack of willingness to engage and to get good insights as well in terms of their particular perspective.