Ms Áine Lynch:

If we ban smartphones, we are saying that children can have phones so really we are banning the Internet and that does not follow with everything else we are doing with the digital strategy in schools and protecting children. We need to realise that the safety of children is linked to development and that we do not suddenly get to 16 and have all the wisdom and knowledge of how to keep ourselves safe. The values around safety for children start at a very young age in the real world and we need to make sure that we also underpin those values in the digital world with children. We know from child development that unless that work is done from a very early age onwards, we are missing opportunities and it can be hard to do later. It is really important that children are engaging with the digital world. I do not think that by keeping it at 13, we are taking over the parenting role. The parent still has a very key role and that is the education piece and supporting parents to support their children's safety online is really important but does not come under the general data protection regulation, GDPR.