Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is a topical issue and I thank the Deputy for raising it. I am the mother of four teenagers who have grown up knowing nothing else except technology in their hands. I am also the proud parent of two children who have used technology as part of our their educational offering from our local school. They have been very successful and have had a good experience with it.

The Deputy is correct. There is not a mam or dad, or probably any adult, who is not concerned about the amount of time our children spend online but, more important, about the material they can potentially access, or the people who have access to our vulnerable children. Not only do we need to take it very seriously as parents - it is challenging and difficult, and I am not saying it is an easy thing to do - but the Government also has to take the health and safety of all of our children extremely seriously, and that is particularly true in the online environment.

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, will bring forward the online safety Bill in the autumn. We propose that, hopefully, this will happen with everybody's input, because it will have to go to pre-legislative scrutiny following the public consultation that has taken place over the past couple of months. We are going to ask all web providers to operate under a new safety code. There will be a clear expectation that they have to take responsibility and measured steps to ensure that children and young, vulnerable adults are safe online. We have to absolutely ban and outlaw cyberbullying material that is designed - it is totally mad to think about this - to encourage children to try to be bulimic or try to be anorexic, or to teach them how to self-harm and how to do damage to themselves. I do not understand a person who would create content like that but our children are getting access to that kind of content just by being available to YouTube, Google and all of the other apps that they enjoy using socially with their friends. The laws of the land have to ensure that not only are there rules, but that they are enforced. The new online safety Bill and a new online safety commissioner will play a pivotal role and we, as a House, should make sure we get that legislation drafted and passed as soon as we can.

Parents have a huge responsibility at home but schools and teachers also have a huge responsibility, not only to make sure there is a digital strategy and a safety strategy in every school, but also to ensure that we teach our kids, in this new environment, to recognise what is good or to recognise somebody who is out to do them harm, because most of our children are young and naive, and they believe what they are told and never assume it is a bad thing.

I have no knowledge of the company, CyberSmarties, to which the Deputy referred. I checked in the Department and I know it has a hugely valuable reputation. It has had enormous interaction and I suggest that it needs to have more. If it is doing work with An Garda Síochána, there is nothing that we cannot learn in regard to best practice from an international perspective. We all want the same thing, which is for our children to enjoy the new world of technology but to get the best out of it, and for us to protect them as a State, as parents and as school educators from the worst aspects of this.

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