Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his answer, which I welcome. I look forward to seeing what updates there are in regard to the consultation and what has been put forward. I sit on the Committee on Children and Youth Affairs which, in examining these issues last year, spoke to various young people. What came across from that was the importance of education, which is something I myself champion. It is not only education in regard to the technologies, what they can provide and the content they can put out, it is also looking at the nuances of communication. By that, I mean online communication as opposed to visible, verbal communication in that something written online can be interpreted in a very different way when compared to the same thing being communicated face-to-face, given there is no body language, no tone of voice and so on, which means things can often be misinterpreted.

Second, when inappropriate behaviour happens online, in particular cyberbullying, which affects the mental health side, we have to educate people and give them the tools and equipment to be able to deal with that and to understand the nuances behind it. They need to understand that this is a snapshot in time and although the emotion has been put there, people and situations move on from that. Anxiety can often be driven by that and I believe we need to focus on the education side of communication as online matures.

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