Hildegarde Naughton (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I, too, extend my sympathies to Senator Eamonn Coghlan and his family on the death of his mother. I also extend my best wishes to Senator Jimmy Harte for a speedy recovery. Our thoughts are with him and his family today.

I congratulate the transition year students and the staff of Salerno secondary school in Salthill, County Galway, who are participating in a trial course, Young Minds Online. A total of 50 transition year students will become social media ambassadors. They will engage with their peers and other teenagers to help them learn about social media or online etiquette, such as safeguarding one's privacy online, handling one's online reputation and one's digital footprint, and helping to report and tackle cyber-bullying. This is an excellent example of young people taking the lead in raising awareness about online etiquette and about tackling, combating and reporting cyber-bullying. There was another excellent example of raising awareness of cyber-bullying, which we debated in this Chamber, in the case of Waterford Comhairle na nÓg, which produced a cyber code a couple of weeks ago.

This is important. The key message is that young people should be leading the way. If this trial course is successful, it will be rolled out across the country. Salerno secondary school will also produce a policy document. This will be not just for teenagers but also for adults, who often find the online social media challenging. It is important that we are all aware of the dangers of online activities.