Dr. Karen McAuley:

We spoke at the very beginning about the two reports on the impact of homelessness on children and the idea of an emerging consensus about the measures needed to try to address child homelessness in the short, medium and long term.

I do not have any wisdom to offer regarding the online issue. I am not sure whether there is a monopoly on wisdom on it. We all know it is very complex. We all know that people individually and collectively have a role to play, starting with personal responsibility for our actions and our decisions about what we do and do not do and what we say and do not say to people, whether online or off-line. This does not just need a multi-agency approach or whole-of-Government approach, it requires a whole-of-society approach. It is about looking at what measures can be mobilised appropriately in the right way. We must ask where law is necessary, where criminal law as opposed to civil law is necessary, where regulation is necessary and what can it do and what can education do. We have spoken about this issue previously and I know committee members are aware of it. We said, and we are not alone in this, that the whole question of educating children and young people from a very young age, from the very beginning of their formal education, so they are equipped with the knowledge and skills in an age-appropriate way to navigate this environment, is very important. There is a range of measures and people who have a role to play in different ways. There is not one simple answer and we all know this.

We work with our colleagues in the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children and our focus this year was on the issue of children's rights in the context of digital media and the digital environment. As part of this, we worked with young people from various countries throughout Europe. One of the things they were very keen to emphasise, and we heard this from children and committee members will be familiar with it, is that it is very important to frame this conversation with regard to the positives and negatives. We are all concerned for children's well-being, welfare and safety and, understandably, we can focus on the protection side of things and on the negatives with regard to the damage that can be done. We also need to take on board the fact that social media is very important to children and young people.