Maire Devine (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the witnesses for their presentation, which was a little mind-blowing. I agree that we should seriously consider establishing an office for digital safety. The rate of automation will increase in the decades ahead. As everything goes digital, we will need someone to be in a position to offer advice and guidance and develop regulation and policy for this area.

Given Tusla's current difficulties with governance, I could not support it being given the lead role in this matter, although I accept that it needs to be involved.

It is the leading child agency in the country.

We must be firm in telling parents to use their heads and stop giving in to the relentless nagging of their children. We have all done it. We have all said, "Wait a minute" or "Just take it now" in response to the constant demand. Our children are programmed to do that but this is the biggest risk to children of our time and we need to tell parents what to do in that regard and give them the guidelines. In that way parents will have the back-up of the State. That may sound as if I am advocating for a nanny state but they will have the back-up of the State in terms of policy and with regard to cultural norms. That is the way we can move forward. It should be appropriate for a parent to say to their child that they cannot have something or that they are restricting the use of something. They should be able to tell a seven year old child that there is no way they are getting a phone. We cannot be fascist and say a child cannot ever do something but we are protecting children and we should tell parents to be parents and do what they are meant to be doing. That is my firm view.

Have the witnesses any notion of the success of Facebook Free Friday and other such campaigns, which challenge children to become involved? They get excited about those campaigns. It is not an issue that is imposed upon them but rather something interesting to them that is trending on Twitter or wherever. They can then choose to get involved in Facebook Free Friday or whatever. That is something we can generate excitement about and get a buy-in, so to speak, regarding that.

I am interested in the role of the Garda. It is difficult for gardaí as well but at present the Garda is the only organisation that seems to be capable of addressing this. We know that as a result of environmental factors or whatever they face in the home environment or outside the home, a certain cohort of children access pornography at an earlier age. We know how difficult it is for an organisation like the ISPCC when it makes a choice to report it. What are its guidelines on that? It is a difficult problem that will become more prevalent the more we allow children access to freeflow of information.

I thank the witnesses and I am pleased to hear the problem is not too complex to fix. I am sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of information in the public domain, and some we do not even know about.