Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 15 June 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Rónán MullenRónán Mullen (Independent)
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I thank Dr. O'Higgins Norman. Love your neighbour as yourself does not seem like such a bad starting point.

If I have time, I wish to ask about cyberbullying. There had been a lot of talk about helping children to be resilient in terms of understanding what is happening to them when they are experiencing bulling. I am also concerned, however, about whether we are doing enough to encourage people to push back against bullying, obviously not in a violent way, but to develop a strength to help children to be agents in combating the negative treatment they experience. Is there room for doing more in that regard?

Given the significant challenges and opportunities posed by the much greater availability of technology in people’s lives, is there something to be said for trying to offer education and support to parents before their children ever go to school, to encourage them to have the strengths to make decisions about children not having technology of certain kinds too soon in their lives, for example, or not having access to technology in their bedrooms too late at night? Are we sometimes a little disinclined to exhort good behaviours over bad behaviours when it comes to the kind of things that might be contributory causes to children's vulnerability?