Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleague, Deputy Sinéad Gibney, who has done and continues to do such extraordinary work in this area.

I am speaking to the Minister of State today through the lens of children’s and young people’s rights. Here we go again. In the past year, the latest moral fear and pan-societal concern for our young people unfolded when we all watched the series “Adolescence” and learned about the risks associated with algorithms and what they are potentially doing to vulnerable children and young people. Unfortunately, for many who have worked with children and young people for many years, there were no surprises in that television show whatsoever. Just last week, a senior garda from the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau warned that children are being groomed and exploited on online gaming platforms. There is nothing newsworthy here. This is something that has developed and expanded over many years. The frustration speaking about this today is because successive Governments have chosen a hands-off, self-regulatory approach. When it comes to enforcing controls over social media and gaming platforms, Governments have been absent. Successive Governments have not only facilitated this but have also enforced children’s and young people’s reliance on online platforms as places to communicate.

We have seen an absence of genuine commitment in respect of physical spaces for children and young people to be safe, to learn, to have fun, to question and to be critical consumers. We do not have sufficient investment in children and young people’s places, and that is something that I note as being an important facet of this conversation.

In the Minister’s opening remarks, he spoke at length about what works were under way so far and how, over the next year, when Ireland takes on the Presidency of the EU, children’s safety and rights, online and digital, will be the cornerstone. That makes me quite nervous. We have seen this all before. One in ten children and young people relies on AI for friendship. This research came out many months ago and it has not been acted on. We have all the research reports we need. We do not need a big conference next year to tell us about online safety.

The Minister spoke about empowering young people and listening to children, young people and their families through a youth forum. Deputy Malcolm Byrne already spoke about the many different youth advisory councils that have come out with their recommendations. All I ask is that we do not wait until the youth forum is established next year. We should establish it now and bring children’s and young people’s voices into this conversation about the digital world and digital safety now. My worry is that when all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. It is not going to work. Copying Australia is not going to work.

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