Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses, who have been extremely insightful. I sit here pondering what has been said in the past 90 minutes. I worked in the sector before but with the amount of information that has come at us today, I am still trying to process what was said earlier. If I am still trying to process it, we can imagine what a parent might be going through in watching this. It all leads back to education. If a person knows and understands the issue, he or she can combat it. If somebody does not know the warning signs, he or she will be hurt. That is down to a lack of education. If there are to be recommendations from this committee, they will be about how we educate people on this. It may have to go before the education committee as well. The matter is evolving and we need underlying education to be able to have the wherewithal and be able to think outside the box in watching for the warning signs. It is an imperative.

The witnesses mentioned protocols and I assume for particular age groups there would be protocols or a methodology or best practice to follow for the ages of 12, 13, 14 and 15. I am homing in on those age groups. Our biggest challenge is trying to lay down that first blueprint, taking from other jurisdictions, so that in five years it will only have to be tweaked as things move on. That might be a recommendation.

We might be using the wrong vocabulary in saying the age of "digital consent". Given the comments from the witnesses, it should be the age of "data consent". It might make more sense. It is confusing and straight away people might ask if they can access the Internet. I would say data consent rather than digital consent. There is also the question of social media companies controlling self-esteem; that means an algorithm controls self-esteem, based on commercially driven ideas. Again, this goes back to education. We must tell our kids at 13, 14 and 15 that certain things happen on social media as people, including children and parents, do not know about it. It is a pitfall.

The witnesses mentioned the number of children starting to interact with the dark web is increasing. Why is that?