Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not delay the House too long. I have much sympathy for the mover of this Bill. I have some idea of what she and others in this House have gone through as a result of abusive communications through social media. My family is no stranger to the use of technology to abuse. Back in 1974, my poor mother used to be woken at 3 o'clock in the morning to be told I was shot, and that happened every day. She got calls at 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock in the morning. That is a matter of police record at this stage, so I am not making this up as I go along.

Media has been used in one form or another to abuse people for generations. I started in media with flags and semaphores and worked my way through Morse code, VHF radios and now on to social media and the like. I engage in Twitter all the time, and I can thank Twitter for my election. If Twitter had not broken the story at the time, I would not be here today. Social media has positive influences in this country.

This Bill is well meaning but, let us be honest about it, it is poorly thought out because it fails to take account of where the technology is located. I have taught in the computer area, particularly in the networking area, for the best part of 20 years. How does one stop me gaining access to one's phone if I have the know-how and can use someone's phone as the platform to bully people? I once had a student who bullied people electronically and it took me months to find him. The reason it took me months was that he was cute, able and technologically proficient enough to be able to switch IP addresses and use the IP addresses of colleagues he was sitting beside. That is the sort of technology we have. Bullying is as old as man. If those who engage in bullying do not bully people on electronic media, they will find some other way.

Should this not be a Bill for the Department of Education and Skills? Should we not be educating young people on how to use social media, because it is here to stay? Bringing in this Bill will not go the whole way towards addressing this issue. If I wanted to have a go at one of my colleagues, I would buy a phone in the North of Ireland, cross the Border every day, send a few text message and come home. This Bill will not solve the problem. The way forward is by way of regulation. If we really want to do something about it, we should place the onus on the Internet service provider and ask it to remove indecent or abusive material. Senator Higgins said that there was a difficulty there but that difficulty can be overcome with regulation and Government orders. If we are going to legislate, we should legislate for the Internet service providers. This Bill will not solve the problem.

I welcome everything the Minister said. I am delighted that a combined agency is examining this issue, involving all those involved in the delivery of these technologies. I hope that at some stage we will see some form of regulation come forward through legislation.However, I do not want to see legislation being passed by this House that will end up being misused by those who want to control people's access to the media and their communications with others.

I have suffered abuse online. I have been called all sorts of names since I got elected to this House. There is a very simple solution to that - block it. If someone insults me once online, they are blocked. That is it. They are not coming back, and I do not want to know anything more about them. If someone is insulting the Senator online, she should just block them but we should not go crazy on this issue.