Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her statement and I thank Deputy Kate O'Connell for contributing on behalf of the committee's Chairman, Deputy Alan Farrell.

I attended every one of the sessions along with my colleagues. They were most informative, enjoyable and enlightening. It is a pity that they were on at 10 a.m. If they were on at 10 p.m., parents would actually have got an awful lot more out of them. As a parent, I got right into it. Having a 16 year old, a 15 year old and a 13 year old, I was hearing it all from all angles, and I really enjoyed it.

I want to acknowledge the stakeholders who appeared before the committee because they played an invaluable role in giving up their time to inform us about the issue. However, as the Minister said, they were not informing just one Department but a minimum of six Departments. That is the wonderful aspect of the Committee on Children and Youth Affairs. We do not hold all the work to ourselves, unlike the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality. We shared it on this issue with the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality but we also shared it with the committees on health, education, climate change, mental health and enterprise and innovation. We had a broad section of people appear before us on this issue, including representatives of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; Webwise; Dr. Geoffrey Shannon, Special Rapporteur on Child Protection; the Law Reform Commission; the special crime operations section and the national protective services bureau of An Garda Síochána; the Office of the eSafety Commissioner, to which I will refer shortly; and Facebook. Regrettably, representatives of Snapchat refused to appear before us but in fairness to Niamh Sweeney and her colleague from Facebook, they appeared before us on the industry aspect. We also had representatives from Newbridge College, Wicklow Comhairle na nÓg and Clare Comhairle na nÓg. At the end, we had Dr. Mary Aiken and Professor Barry O'Sullivan. It is important to mention also the Internet Content Governance Advisory Group, which was led by Professor Brian O'Neill, as well as Ronan Lupton, Áine Lynch and Professor Joe Carthy.

All the Ministers appeared before the committee for the final part of the sessions. Apparently, it was the first time that happened. The Minister, Deputy Zappone, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, and the Minister forEducation and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, appeared before us. That showed a willingness to collaborate on the issue of cybersafety and protection of our children.

The momentum to deal with this issue started in February 2017 and we concluded our hearings in February 2018. It was a year's solid work. We would say we worked hard but the clerk to the committee and her team worked very hard also in writing to people and compiling the report. We received many submissions.

The content in terms of what was put before the committee was amazing. The media bought into our discussions and listened to them on a weekly basis, hence the Ministers came in behind us. The one element that kept coming through from the discussions was the question of a digital safety commissioner. Myself and the Minister had exchanges in the House during Question Time in recent days but a digital safety commissioner was an issue that continued to arise because there does not appear to be a proper level of governance or protection for our young people. Parents do not believe they are sufficiently equipped or educated because technology is changing so quickly in this area. They would appreciate having the short rule book on it because the children are ten steps ahead of us.

One lesson I learned last summer was to do with the Snapchat locations setting. I had never heard of that. In fairness, one of the radio stations carried the story on Snapchat locations. Children were not allowed on Snapchat until they were 13 but the age has been increased to 16. This time last year, a child could be on Snapchat but a new application, locations, appeared on it. That means that if someone turned on the locations setting, people could identify their location. If they were being followed, groomed or profiled, the person doing that would know where they lived. My children came to visit in the Dáil one day. Aoíbhinn put on her Snapchat location setting so when she went out to Grafton Street, I could tell where she was and if I could trace her location, so could every one of her friends. The radio programme carried the story about the Snapchat locations setting and advised parents to have the conversation about it with their children and that it should be turned off.

We also heard about another application that came out around last August, Sarahah, which was not the nicest one. On Snapchat children can talk to their friends but only negative and nasty commentary is put up on Sarahah. As a result of radio stations carrying the story, parents became aware of it. Many of them had the conversation with their children and were able to take down the site.

While Instagram is great for posting beautiful pictures and so on, it might give young girls the wrong impression that they have to look a particular way or that their make-up should be perfect. It is exposing children too much and sexualising them far too early.

Dr. Geoffrey Shannon made powerful statements to the committee. I believe he appeared before the Law Reform Commission before he appeared before our good selves. On the digital safety commissioner he stated:

The proposed Office of the Digital Safety Commissioner of Ireland should oversee effective and efficient take down procedure in a timely manner, regulating for a system of take down orders in respect of harmful cybercommunication made in respect of both adults and children. I would also add that in the terms of the role of the Digital Safety Commissioner and take down procedures there should be a requirement on the Digital Safety Commissioner to take down material within a specified period of time. It is an issue that is not expressly referenced in the report of the Law Reform Commission...

What we are talking about in that regard is children putting up inappropriate images on Instagram. They could take photographs of themselves or their friends and if they put them on the likes of Snapchat, one friend might like them and all of a sudden they would go to others. They could be then used as a form of bullying or for various other reasons. Also, if they are left in that sphere and they subsequently want to apply for a job or something like that, Dr. Shannon advised that they should take them down.

Dr. Shannon also spoke about fights taking place that are put on YouTube. Some of them show young children fighting or being paid to fight in particular areas, and he wanted those images to be taken down.

The right to be forgotten was another of Dr. Shannon's key recommendations. If a child is under an age when the brain might not have developed to a particular level, he or she should have that right of protection and the right to be forgotten.

Two groups of children appeared before the committee and while they were wonderful, I am glad we left them to the end of our discussions because if we had brought them to come in at the start, everything else would have been dull after their appearance.

Two staff members man the office for Internet safety in the Department of Justice and Equality. They are tasked with Internet safety for the entire country but to be fair to the two ladies who appeared before the committee, they produced 40,000 booklets on Internet safety. Unfortunately, they do not produce enough of them. They should have one for every national and secondary school because the quality of the content is second to none. The only complaint I have about that is that not enough booklets are produced. They should be put into every national school and not in September but at Christmas time when Santy might bring the child a phone or at confirmation time. In that way the conversation about Internet safety can be had. The office for Internet safety has done a huge amount of work for which it deserves great credit.

Representatives of An Garda Síochána appeared before us also. It has a team of 32 people working in the Phoenix Park headquarters. They discussed the amount of work they have to put in to deal with cyberbullying, profiling, grooming, sexting, what takes place in the underworld of the Internet and how cruel it can be to very young children. They explained that the most vulnerable are the most at risk.

They work with agencies such as Interpol, our European colleagues and others. One of the concerns I have with Brexit moving forward is how our communications will continue in order to protect children.

This report is amazing. The Minister is just one among many others but she is an Independent Alliance Minister in the Cabinet. I ask her to press for the action plan to come forward and also for the establishment of the digital safety commissioner. It is a must for our children.

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