Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill introduced by my colleague Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire and I welcome that the Government will not oppose the Bill.

Digital safety, and in particular the safety of young people online, has been a major news story in recent weeks. Many parents feel out of their depth when it comes to the use of technology. Meanwhile, children are growing up with it and are far more versed in its use than many Members in this House. Despite this, many young people are still not fully aware of the dangers present when it comes to the use of social media and various apps.

The Internet Content Governance Advisory Group made a number of recommendations to Government in a 2014 report on what needs to be done. Four years later we still have not implemented the bulk of the recommendations in that report. The use of technology has been invaluable in education, communication and business. There have, however, been darker sides to this technology with a range of child protection issues - harassment; bullying; exposure to inappropriate content; and predatory behaviour, all of which have made the headlines recently. Legislation is simply unable to keep up. The time is overdue for the setting up of an office of the digital safety commissioner. This office would have the role of promoting online digital safety, reviewing and regulating harmful digital communications on the Internet and other digital platforms with the intention of establishing safer and healthier attitudes for all users of digital platforms.

Earlier this week the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs Committee saw how this issue falls across various Departments. It was great to see the four Ministers in before the committee. It shows the Government has a unified response on this serious issue. This is why we need a one-stop shop on which young people, parents, industry and legislators can rely to advise on best practice around digital safety.

I support the idea of an advisory council that would include members from civil society groups, Government Departments and the industry to provide regular feedback to the commissioner. All Members are aware that digital technology will continue to play an increasing role in the lives of young people. We need to be sure that we have the tools in place to educate young people on how to use this technology in a respectful and safe way. We need parents to be educated and aware of the potential dangers of their children using such services. We also need the industry to be aware of its obligation to safeguard users. As legislators we need to ensure there are robust regulations and standards in place to improve digital safety and a timely and efficient procedure for the removal of harmful digital communications.

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