Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 13 May 2021

Joint Committee on Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht

General Scheme of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Christopher O'SullivanChristopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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My apologies for missing the opening of the meeting. There was a clash and I was at another committee. I have read the opening statements and there are some insights I would like to get from the witnesses on education. I apologise if other members have touched on this.

The witnesses may have been told about the presentations we were given last week by two secondary schools, when the students very eloquently and intelligently outlined what they would like to see from this Bill and what they would like the Bill to do for them. It was not just the Bill they were talking to, and they were talking about overall policy on online platforms, social media, cyberbullying and safe online behaviour. One of their points related to the fact there is a bit of a disconnect with teachers of an older generation and parents, who are older and who may not have grown up in the world of Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, so there may be a lack of understanding. They presented the excellent idea of having advocates and activists from within their peer group for safe online behaviour and to talk about issues such as cyberbullying, the posting of harmful content and so on. I apologise again if this has been brought up already but I would like to have a comment from the witnesses on that excellent idea.