Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has been very reasonable in what he has said, and although my amendment is at variance with the stance being taken by the Department, the debate has been useful in that it has raised the issue. It has been fairly thoroughly debated. It has been the occasion on which the amendments of Senators Ruane and Higgins have had their first run out, and if there is the prospect of arriving at some improved protections along the lines of their proposal, that would encourage me greatly.

I am also conscious of the fact that Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin want time to consider their positions and do not want to be pushed into a "Yea" or "Nay" one way or the other on the issue. I do not like asking for votes when I can see the outcome, and I am not doing a solo run or an I am holier than anybody else act. I believe very strongly the Minister is under an imperative to meet the May deadline, and whether or not the matter is rushed I imagine that in the end we will meet that deadline. If it can be done in the context of addressing some of the issues that have arisen on extending protections, then I am happy with that.

I suggest that some of the legislative provisions in the United Kingdom are interesting in the context of Brexit. These are probably matters which it will not in a couple of years be obliged to do at all, but it does occur to me that provision for them might be made in the legislation. I also take the point the Minister made that there are references in some of the articles in the regulation to guidelines which could be the subject of some legislative fleshing out in this jurisdiction.

I do not propose to call a vote. I do not propose to put the matter to a vote chiefly because I know what the outcome will be and I do not want to waste everybody's time, in view of the arithmetic as it is now working out. Professor Mary Aiken wrote a book called "The Cyber Effect" and between one thing and another I ended up launching it in Dublin. We are in a transformative phase where childhood itself is changing. Children are not just reading Enid Blyton any more and they are not sticking to Lego or Barbie dolls. The world is moving under our feet so to speak. I do not want to be an unconscious part of a process whereby we erode childhood or we absolve parents of their duties towards children.

What I said at the beginning about rights I very strongly believe. It is great to stand up and talk about rights all the time and we have the Children's Rights Alliance and the Ombudsman for Children. We are all in favour of rights, but there is no such thing as a right without a corresponding duty. Society must accept it has duties in respect of children. If we talk about children's rights there are correlative duties to children. Whether choosing 13 or 16 as the age of digital consent is the way to demonstrate compliance with our duties is one thing, but I am absolutely convinced this country needs to take the protection of children on the Internet much more seriously. I am convinced the commissioner for Internet safety must be fleshed out. I am convinced we should have been looking at the possibility of guidelines ourselves. We should have been inquiring of ourselves whether the UK protections were legitimate and apposite. We should have been asking ourselves all of these questions, rather than simply arriving very close to a May deadline when all of these things would have to be legislated on in a bit of a rush.

I thank all of the Members who contributed to the debate on this amendment. I have learned a lot listening to them. In the spirit of constructiveness I will not put the matter to a vote.