Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses for attending. I assume when we speak about the law that there would be different penalties for different levels of offence. Some offences will be dire, and others will be less dire in nature, depending on involvement of children, peer pressure and the age groups concerned. What happens in the school yard is taken online at different ages. That is not belittling some of the more extreme offences but I am talking about general harassment. I am trying to find the right word for it. When peer pressure is involved with kids in the school yard and that is talked about online, we have to tease out to what degree that is acted on. We are behind the curve in education. This is very fluid and is happening quickly. I am online, reading internetsafety.ie, about sextortion and all the latest things that are happening. Once existing things are combatted, something new will appear, so we really have to provide education.

It is probably the role of the Joint Committee on Education and Skills to decide which bodies should provide education, when and where is best to provide it and what age group is best to target for this education. I see some alarming statistics on it here. Education is key. If underage people or even adults see something coming in, such as a scam, they should be educated enough to be able to see the wood from the trees and determine that it does not add up, as opposed to falling into the trap. Many of these things would be bait for people. We should have an educational side along with the legal element. If one can educate children when they are young and teach them how to behave as they would in the school yard, that might go a long way too.