Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

While I take on board the comments about the involvement of young people and working with them on all of the issues outlined in the responses, including through the innovative programmes that the Garda outlined, I am of the view that this comes down to a mindset change. The latter is something that we do not address often enough. Anyone can set up a successful business that sells drugs. There is no regulation or anything. It is just illegal, which is why such businesses are not set up, but one could sell drugs and make large amounts of money. In the case of what we are discussing, though, we are in a strange situation wherein it is claimed that, because someone can build a technology with peer-to-peer or end-to-end encryption, he or she should be able to do it. There may be some social good in certain contexts. For example, we have seen protest movements around the world and people who are involved in trying to tackle unsavoury regimes using technology for good. Having also seen the level of damage being done, however, we must be able to do something. I am 50 something years of age, and Mr. Church's statistic about how virtually every aspect of 16 to 18 year olds' lives is online is frightening. Deputy Jack Chambers is much younger than me, but many of us present probably grew up prior to the age when everything was available online - every photo of every birthday, every family moment, everything we did in school, etc. That is terrifying to people who did not grow up with it, as is knowing that companies can use and exploit it or facilitate people who want to harass, bully or harm others. I hope that we move to regulate it and that there will be a penalty for the perpetrators, but the people actually making the billions of euro will get to walk away scot-free and live a lifestyle thanks to something that has caused endless harm. At a certain point in 20, 30 or 40 years' time, we as a society will look back on this period aghast that we put up with this and said that we had to do so because there was no way around it.