Ms Rachel O'Connor:

It starts with creating awareness. I am absolutely banging my head against a wall. If I organise an information session for families in the middle of the day, working families cannot attend. If I organise it at 7 p.m., it is bedtime or dinner time and parents cannot attend. If I organise it later at night, there will be people who work night shifts.

It is not possible to get everybody. The sign-up to parental talks on issues other than subject choice, etc., is very low. The committee can start by creating awareness. There are wonderful resources available, such as Webwise. I know from teachers on my staff who are parents and attend the cyber-bullying training we provide for our students that their minds are blown by how many new developments there are every year and, aside from all the positives, that there are so many different dangers and threats for teenagers. The important thing is going back to the simple guidelines and etiquette around the use of the online space. Parents should be involved in their child's online world, as they are very much entitled to be, although I do not know whether many of them realise they have that entitlement. It is almost like their children are living in the physical world at home at the dinner table but they also live in this online space of which the parents are completely unaware. I have encountered many cases where I have a mammy telling me she has access to all her son's accounts, but she does not have access to the fake accounts he has set up. There is a trust and communication piece there between mammy and child. It is a massive cultural thing in respect of which we are playing catch-up but, by creating awareness, we can catch up. We are trotting behind our teenagers but the committee can create awareness and it is a very powerful and privileged place to be.