Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Today, we have seen another case of alleged cyberbullying, with 28 students being suspended from their school as a result of this alleged activity. This sends a strong message to students, parents and society at large about the seriousness of some of these issues.

Last week, I delivered a speech to the European economic and social committee in Brussels in which I proposed the idea that empowerment through education is a more effective tool than centralised policing. In this regard, we can get too carried away and point the finger too much at the various social media networks.

In the story to which I referred, 28 young lives, plus the life of a teacher, were impacted upon and have been needlessly interrupted. There are two main problems, as I see it. One is a societal problem of how we will deal with bullying and how we can stand up to bullies - and that is not just on the Internet. The second is a technological problem of how we can employ methods to tackle online bullies. As regards both these problems, I believe that empowerment through education could have a beneficial role. It would empower young people to break from the herd, click the report button and have the content removed, thus ensuring that the juvenile actions of one person do not spoil the lives of many others.

Unfortunately, bullying has always occurred and cyberbullying is just another form of it. The issue of eradicating bullying remains as difficult as ever and new technology merely provides another dynamic. The bully is no longer the obvious boy or girl in the classroom because social networking facilitates any individual in the privacy of his or her own home to partake in bullying that is much more difficult to police. We need to empower and educate young people to work online without fear of the same negative behaviour that we can all encounter in ordinary life.

On previous occasions, the Leader has been asked to facilitate a debate on this matter. We could usefully have one in the near future.