David Norris (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. He is a very good person to be in charge of this area.

I am now of an age that, when I was a child, terms such as attention deficit disorder and dyslexia were not recognised. Any child who was disruptive, of whom there were many, was battered into submission. I saw it happening in the school I attended and I am not sure it was a very good idea. However, there has been a relaxing of physical sanctions and the phenomenon of latchkey children has grown. Although one cannot apportion the blame entirely to any of these, there is no doubt that children have changed like the rest of society. There is a violent element among young people which I do not recall from my youth or at least it was held in check.

Senator Glynn referred to two recent appalling cases in which children committed murder apparently for possession of mobile telephones. However, one of the boys indicated he was hell bent on committing murder before he set out and grabbed the telephone. Moreover, he said he would have preferred to kill his father. I wonder what process of desensitisation is going on in such cases. Senator Glynn also referred to television but I do not believe television has a significant role to play. However, I wonder about video games because they may well have a tendency to desensitise children. When I was small, we played cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians and we got a great thrill from pretending to be dead through dramatic clutchings of the chest and falling to the ground.