Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue and something we all have a responsibility to try to deal with to support our young people, to educate them and to protect them insofar as possible from many of the challenges they face online. In respect of the mobile phones during school time, the pouches were just one of a number of measures that have been recommended and will be rolled out. It is not mandatory for any school but is an option for a school to take up. I have spoken to schools where this has been rolled out and the response from teachers and also from parents is that this is transformative for children in that they are not on their phones, not just during the school period and class times but also at break times, when we want them to be having fun with their friends and enjoying sport, drama, music or whatever else they are involved in. As I said, it is just one of a suite of measures that we all need to be engaged in.

In the Department of Education, as part of our digital strategy for schools, the focus is on ensuring that young people are supported so that they can use technology as a key part of their learning, but also that they are safe and well in doing it online. A key component of that is Webwise, the Irish Internet safety awareness centre, which is part of the Irish safer Internet centre. It supports teachers and parents but also supports students directly. It gives a sustained information and awareness strategy targeting school leaders, teachers, parents and children themselves. It develops and disseminates resources that help teachers integrate digital citizenship across their different platforms.

For example, there are resources such as Be in Ctrl, a campaign on online exploitation and sexual coercion, and Lockers, a resource for post-primary students dealing again with the sharing of explicit self-generated images of minors. There is engagement around Coco's Law, a law I introduced, which bans the sharing of intimate images, and Up2Us, a campaign focused on creating awareness in the prevention of online bullying. There is a Webwise youth panel of 30 teenagers, who work with Webwise to ensure that what is being rolled out is appropriate. There are also changes to the social, personal and health education, SPHE, and the relationships and sexuality education, RSE, curricula. It is really important that when they are being rolled out, they are focused on the issues that young people are concerned with and an emphasis on online issues.

I will come back in on some of the other work that is being done.

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