Dr. Karen McAuley:

The plan is newly published. This is an area where we are looking to the future over the next two to three years. We are still working out our plans in regard to it. As a first step, we are seeking to commission research on the challenges and opportunities associated with mobilising social and digital media to strengthen or advance the scope for children and young people to express their views and to have those taken into account, in particular by public decision makers and public policy makers. Social and digital media are an integral part of children's and young people's lives. A lot of the structures that are there for children and young people to express their views are representative structures and mechanisms. Social and digital media potentially offer an opportunity to complement that and, in doing so, provide for a more inclusive approach where children and young people can, in an agile way, contribute individually. We want to undertake research to understand more fully, given our appreciation that there are challenges, what are the opportunities. We want to look at both sides of that and perhaps identify examples of good practice in other jurisdictions where this has been tried and, ideally, evaluated. That is the first step.

The other area at which we are looking is where we can appropriately and effectively contribute to digital citizenship among children and young people. That covers the broad range of children's rights, from protection rights through to their participation rights. It is an area that many different actors are working on nationally and internationally. Again, it is about taking the time to scope out what is the most appropriate intervention we can make in that respect.