Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 2 October 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Online Harassment and Harmful Communications: Discussion

Mr. John Church:

I echo Professor Carthy's comments. The Internet is mostly positive. We conducted some research in 2016 and 2017, although it may have been in 2017 and 2018. I must check. Among other things, we asked respondents about length of time spent online and the material they accessed. We also asked parents about their involvement. Some findings were of great concern. While something like 60% of parents played an active part in most of their children's online engagement, quite a significant percentage of parents did not. When probed, it emerged that they probably feared the technology. They were not familiar with the technology and it was a topic with which they did not wish to deal. It was easier to just hand the tablet over and allow it to become another babysitter.

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