Dr. Harry Barry:

I thank the Senator for her kind comments but I must be careful with what I say because my wife is seated in the corner of the Gallery.

I could not agree more with the Senator that we need to take a lot of the mystery out of this matter and revert to plain, common horse sense because so much of this is common sense. I appeal for a national protocol on smartphones, which I have sought for five years. I would love if teachers, parents and perhaps representatives of young people met and collectively produced a voluntary code. As a community of people and for the sake of young people, let us put some structured order on this matter once and for all. I could not agree more with the Senator that if we do not do so then it will be to the detriment of young people. I am not sure but I believe Professor Mary Aiken called technology the greatest social experiment of our time. I wish to God that I did not have to sit around for the next 15 to 20 years to see the effects. Everybody says that such comments are scaremongering and that when television became commonplace, we all felt the same but I must stress that digital technology is different due to the intensity and level of involvement in the lives of young people. I do not oppose coding or any sensible use of technology. If, however, it leads to a young person learning to see him or herself in the way other people on this machine tell him or her, then we are doomed to a nation of anxious, depressed, self-harming or anorectic children. I believe this device has been very much responsible in this regard. Of course adolescence is full of all of its difficulties, traumas and problems. We have all been there, we have all reared children and, therefore, know what adolescence involves. However, we must stand back and realise this is something different. As a people, we need to acknowledge that and try to do something about the matter.

I would love to see a lot more emphasis placed on early intervention by parents and teachers. I cannot emphasise enough that if one teaches a child to swim then if he or she falls into the river or a pool, there is a good chance he or she will get out the other side. If one throws a child who cannot swim into a pool he or she might, if he or she is lucky, scramble his or her way to the other side but there is a pretty good chance he or she will get very distressed and get into real difficulty. Just as we regard it as sensible to teach a child about weight, diet, nutrition and exercise, we also need to teach resilience skills such as how to be mindful and how to talk to one another, which is one of the simplest things of all. Sadly, technology is killing the art of conversation and the same applies to social skills. An awful lot of young people have social anxiety because they live their world through a technological device and do not learn those one-to-one empathy skills that are so important for real life. I argue that children must be taught the skills for life, not the skills to get X number of points. As life is tough, difficult and full of trauma, we need skills and support to learn those skills. I fully support such an approach.