Professor Brian O'Neill:

I fully support the Deputy in raising that issue. There is a need to focus on the availability of high-profile, well-resourced and trusted guidance and content. It is a confusing issue for many parents. It is also confusing for young people if there is not a familiar resource available.

In a report for the Internet content governance advisory group and in some of the other policy discussions, we focused on what exists currently and how it needs to be strengthened. That is in particular reference to safer Internet centres. The entire safer Internet programme at European level has delivered over the past 15 years. A concept evolved in the early 2000s that there should be a network across Europe of helplines and hotlines in addition to an effective reporting mechanism for legal content and, importantly, support for educational and awareness-raising content. The awareness centre, or the awareness node, has become a crucial part in this regard.

In Ireland, the Professional Development Service for Teachers, PDST, acts as the key educational partner and has a particular role in respect of schools and supporting teachers in terms of providing educational materials, developing campaigns, training teachers through in-service programs and so on. We felt, however, that this model should be much better known and more widely available. It has the National Parents Council as a partner. Likewise, its services to parents, whether through training programmes or good, effective resources and guides, ought to be better known and more widely available. This experience is borne out across Europe. I refer to the questions of whether a well-regarded and visible source of guidance would be beneficial, whether the digital safety commissioner, for example, is a very public and visible concept that would give effect to that in terms of offering something to the public through a one-stop shop as a point of contact and place where a person could ask what he or she needs to know as a parent or what that person would do if he or she came across an issue about which he or she was unsure or a problem that person could not deal with.

Safe Internet centres comprise a really important concept in this regard. We need to emphasise it and continue to determine how those concerned can be assisted to do their job even better.