Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the digital age of consent, I have been involved in a consultative process recently and we will be speaking about it until the end of May at least. Far be it for me to come here and say that I disagree with experts who have examined it. I am very conscious of that. We have a briefing today with Dr. Geoffrey Shannon to which I am very much looking forward to listening. I am missing something on why the decision was made. I am not one for going against Government policy and it would never be my intention. Our review is ongoing and we have a place in this debate, as we are the committee dealing with children's matters. I appreciate the logistics and the respect we must have for the justice committee. Our discussion is relevant, however, and I note the comments of the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, in that regard.

Deputy Mitchell covered another matter, the education of parents in what can be done to assist the situation with their children etc. I do not mean to flog the point but I mentioned Internet protocol, IP, filtering and inverting the process. If parents wanted to get their children connected to something, they would have to educate themselves as to how to opt in. It would create an awareness in itself. I take Deputy Mitchell's point and perhaps both approaches would work. However, although an expensive marketing campaign is well and good, if we essentially have a tool to empower a parent by default, it would be a sensible way forward. I am very interested in the addiction point made by Senator Devine. Whatever about an addiction to gambling, we are all somewhat addicted to our phones. We cannot expect children not to be on phones when adults are on them the whole time.

There must be an attitude of growing up about this. I do not allow myself to use my phone at times - mainly because I am being trolled all the time - and were one to look at that, one would need to be concerned about one's mental health. I must decide not to use the phone after a certain time of the day and that is it. It is for my own sanity. We need to mature when it comes to our use of the Internet, and adults need to do it first and foremost. We cannot expect children to not go on the Internet if we do not curtail our use. Last week, Dr. Aiken stated that every moment a parent is looking at a phone is a moment when he or she is not interacting with a child. I could speak about it all day as it is very interesting. Do the Ministers have any comments on IP filtering in particular?