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

So much work is being done. I mentioned Webwise and the different programmes that are being rolled out. The change in the curriculum has taken a number of years but it is now being rolled out and will be mandatory for leaving cert students. The ban that has initially come into our primary schools is absolutely fantastic but we all have a role here. There is more that schools can do, such as through the ICT grant, which ensures that children are digitally literate. Yesterday, I was at a school in Trim where there is coding and programmes I certainly did not have access to when I was in school. Children are being taught in a way that shows them how they can benefit from technology, but we need to ensure that, embedded in that education, we are wise to the challenges they face.

As parents, we also have a role to play. I spoke to a primary school teacher last night whose school has banned mobile phones. It works very well, but he knows there are students in second class and upwards who have access to phones when they go home, be it a parent's phone or a sibling's phone that has been discarded, which they are able to use to access social media sites. We have to ensure that the education does not just stop in the classroom and that any of the programmes we are developing can be accessed not just by the teachers and students but also by the parents. That is so much of what is happening.

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