Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the Members who have spoken to support this very important legislation brought forward by my colleague and the leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Howlin. The question needs to be asked. How suicides, depressions and breakdowns do we require as evidence of the problems before we take any action with regard to cyberbullying, harassment, hate, hate speech and hate mail? This Bill is a modest Bill that seeks to put some powers back in the hands of society with regard to these problems, which are now pervasive not only in Ireland but across the world. Any controls over free comments are obviously controversial and difficult but racist and homophobic comments are properly subject to controls in the published media and these controls are not regarded as censorship. I think that is very important. There are domestic and international laws that require manufacturers of cars and other products to have full regard for public and consumer safety with huge penalties for any failures. Buildings are built to certain standards to prevent them being engulfed in fire and if that happens or if balconies collapse, the parties involved may be taken to court. However, we have a cyberspace and a social media space that are broadly free of regulation in any meaningful way. The mega billionaires of the Internet age who guard their own privacy with immense care are very cavalier about any controls or restrictions on the content their products transmit with no regard to the damage or hurt caused to individuals who become the targets of online abuse and hate speech. From reading books, articles and interviews by many of them, it appears that many of them, along with many of the residents of Silicon Valley, heavily restrict their own children's access to devices, particularly when they are young teenagers.

I spoke to a number of people today in the context of this Bill being put forward. One of the things that stood out was that parents, particularly mothers, said that I should make the point that children are now sharing online from about the age of ten or 11. As many people have said, it has become part of their lifestyle. Schools are not really well equipped to deal with this because much of this happens outside of school time but continues into school. It follows the child around, be it in the sports club or school environment. It risks overwhelming the child's ordinary life.

I do not know if many Members have seen a video by Luke Culhane from Limerick under the hashtag "CreateNoHate". It is very short but very good. It explains in a very simple way the journey that a young child makes with regard to the impact of bullying and how it is effectively as bad as or worse than assault. He makes a recommendation, which is that teenagers should adopt a three-word code - stop, block and tell. They should stop it, block it and then tell a responsible adult such as a parent, guardian or teacher. It is brilliantly effectively and I urge the Department of Justice and Equality to become active. The Government has a special communications unit with its €5 million allocation. In many ways, we would be better off if some of that money was put into providing for this legislation and looking at how we can empower children, in particular, to defend themselves and bring an end to this cycle of hatred, which risks overwhelming whole areas and societies.

While the social media companies have made efforts to reach out and respond on public platforms and television programmes and partake to some degree, they really do not make it easy to lodge a complaint. I invite anybody here who is aware of something like this to seek to make a complaint. To be honest, it just goes into a kind of black hole. It is almost impossible to follow and it is almost impossible to get a response. It is a really difficult issue with regard to privacy. However, like adult abuse, we all know that 100 years ago, a huge amount of violence against women was the norm in many societies and still is among some people but we have recognised that abuse is about power being exercised over somebody who, for whatever reason, is perceived as less powerful. This is what much of this is about. In respect of the state to which it reduces victims, particularly children, like others, I have heard harrowing stories from parents who have told me about suicides, depression and the destruction of somebody who was once lively, positive and strong but who has been really damaged and in some cases, destroyed by what has happened.

Fergus Finlay and Barnardos have run courses around the country. I note that many schools are now utilising home-school liaison teachers to take up the issue with the perpetrators where it is within a school-related community.

Various schools run anti-bullying campaigns which pertain in part to social media in particular. Many schools in my constituency are doing this. In Britain the Princess Diana Awards specifically reward schools that try to develop this. Quite a few schools in Ireland have developed a programme. Barnardos runs courses for parents. While much is being done, the tide of hate is very strong.

I will give a simpler example relating to adults. I found out today that Maura Derrane, a very popular presenter on television, was being taken apart on social media and subsequently in the newspapers because somebody felt that a striped jumper was not the right thing to wear on television. We need to get over ourselves a bit and not be so hurtful to other people in a thoughtless way. It has become the go-to because the people who are doing this are very confident that they have high levels of anonymity if not total anonymity. That, in turn, passes down to younger abusers, some of them children and some of them young adults. I agree with Deputy Jan O'Sullivan that some of them have issues in their own lives. They are causing a great deal of damage to others.

The Government has as good an understanding of this as any of us has; I do not believe that Ministers live in a completely isolated bubble. The Government must make a decision in principle. Will it take this legislation in hand? We will work as much as is required to address any issues that arise with the Bill. Will the Government work to bring this to a point where it can be prosecuted? If the Government decides to be hands off, then one would have to say perhaps the influence of the social media companies in Ireland is excessive. They have great tax deals. It would also seem they will potentially have great deals in how they respond to this absolute crisis of this decade.

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