Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators Craughwell and Boyhan for sponsoring the Bill and all Senators who participated in the debate. Everyone agrees that this is an important debate. As previous speakers noted, I do not intend to oppose this Bill.

On the one hand, technology has phenomenal power and can be used to transform education. It is an area of great potential. On the other hand, like any powerful tool, technology can be abused. We see daily the problems created by abuse of technology, including bullying, harassment and sexting. All of these phenomena have elevated the pressure on young people. I understand that we need to have a well informed debate on how to harness technology, teach people to be discerning in its use, keep people safe and avoid the distractions to which many Senators adverted.

The Government is developing a whole-of-Government strategy on Internet safety. Four Ministers recently appeared together before the Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs to discuss this important issue because of its relevance to children, justice issues, communications and education. I do not recall any other meeting being attended by four Ministers and in that sense the meeting was historic. The Government will develop a strategy, to be published before the summer, which will address all of the issues we discussed and how we can better integrate services across government to recognise the various challenges, including gaps in legislation, regulation, offences, and international networks for overseeing powerful companies.

I issued a circular to all schools in the spring requiring that they consult parents on Internet safety and the appropriate use of mobile devices in schools. This is a comprehensive invitation to schools to sit down with parents and examine issues such as appropriate and inappropriate use, what restrictions should be in place, what rules should apply during break times and how to achieve a shared approach to what happens at home and in the school, such as that adopted in County Kerry. Senator Ó Ríordáin pointed out that much more time is spent in the home and school principals have told me there is no point in having a strong policy in the school if bullying or sexting continues unabashed as soon as pupils leave the school building. That is why we believe in pursuing an approach of consulting from the ground up and asking schools to examine their policies in consultation with students and with parents.

Ireland applies good practice in this area. To take an international comparison, according to a survey of European Union countries, students in Ireland report that 89% of teachers actively offer guidance compared with an average figure of 69% in the rest of Europe. Moreover, students reported that parents offer guidance in 87% of cases compared with an average figure of 77% in the rest of Europe. Irish people are engaged with the issue of good practice and how it should be developed. The same survey showed that 87% of children reported no use of mobile phones in their school and the other 13% reported restricted use. As such, the survey did not find any cases of unrestricted use in Irish schools. That is not the policy being pursued.

The concept of bottom up discussion of this issue is a strong one. No one can expect officials in Marlborough Street or Members of the Oireachtas to have all the answers to designing the perfect regulation to be implemented at school level. It is important that we hear the voices of students in this debate. Looking around, all of us are probably above the age where we might be described as digital natives. We have to be careful when trying to prescribe practices for a generation who may see the world in a different light. It is important to take the opportunity to hear other voices in the consultation. The Department is sponsoring a parents and students charter and I hope the legislation giving effect to the charter will soon be published. It recognises the importance of partnership because if parents, students and teachers are involved there will be a much better policy as a result.

A great deal is happening in our schools already, as acknowledged by the Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs. All schools have policies on acceptable use and anti-bullying, including cyberbullying.We have a very good suite of Webwise programmes. I invite Senators to have a look at them because they make up a really impressive suite of programmes that are available in our schools and that deal with being in control. Some of them directly target the issue of sexual coercion and extortion on the Internet. Lockers is another programme that deals with non-consensual image sharing. The Up2Us Anti-Bullying Kit is an online kit. ThinkB4UClick is a junior cycle resource. The list goes on. This is very active and available advice to teachers, parents, schools and students. What is really exciting is the fact that they are using student ambassadors to popularise the need to be conscious of safe use. It is not all top down. Although programmes are devised, they recognise that getting the engagement of students is probably the best way of rolling them out. All of our schools will also be introducing a well-being strategy so every school will be looking at its entire suite of policies to make sure it is supporting the resilience of students. Again, starting next September, every school will develop a digital learning framework. It is currently being piloted in 50 schools.

I am not for one minute saying that we have the last word in policies to support safe use of the Internet. I am sure we do not and we have a lot to learn. However, there is a lot of good practice there and we can evolve the codes, as Senator Craughwell is using, from some of this good practice. There are legal bases for doing that in other parts of the legislation in a way that is not quite as prescriptive as Senator Craughwell's suggestion.

The other thing that is important to say is that we should not undervalue the importance of digital technology. I think Senator Craughwell recognised that at the very beginning of his contribution. I had the opportunity to invite schools to participate in digital clusters. It was oversubscribed by three times. A total of 700 schools applied to become involved in digital clusters recognising the huge power of digital technology to enhance learning. While Senator Craughwell is right to say that there are cases where this mindless and vacant use of a digital device can reduce someone's concentration and performance, it is equally true that properly harnessed, digital technology can promote creative thinking and constructive knowledge - students putting their own knowledge together, which gets much more embedded if they do that. It can promote exciting research, analysis and presentational skills at a level that is not available with traditional chalk-and-talk models or students handing up their copybooks at the end of the project. Some schools are using a bring-your-own device approach so they recognise that the devices that are there can be used and harnessed. Many of our schools avail of the blocking services we provide along with broadband so that if broadband is being used in the school, students simply cannot access certain websites. We have committed to investing €420 million in digital technology over our schools over the next decade. We recognise that there is this other side of it. In every single curricular area, we are asking the NCCA to look at how digital technology can enrich teaching, learning and assessment in that subject.

We must recognise that this is a balance. We have a very powerful educational tool. Young people must learn to be discerning in their use of this very powerful tool, which is the ultimate objective. We want it to empower people to know how they should use it, what is acceptable and appropriate and what its powers and dangers are. That is the ultimate journey we are trying to take.

While I am not opposing Senator Craughwell's Bill, I must sound a few warnings about it being so prescriptive in the way it has approached the issue. We all recognise that we need to have codes and to develop them in a flexible way. Senator Craughwell's Bill does envisage consultation but consultation when there are also very prescriptive sections about labelling and surrendering phones, a prohibition on use with penalty clauses if students are found to be in possession and new obligations on boards, it will smack of a top-down approach. I find that nothing annoys principals as much as when they are told that Marlborough Street has put another obligation on them to do something. Yesterday, Senator Gallagher articulated some of the frustration from principals being told there is another thing they must do. Trying to get this to bubble up from the bottom is the best way to go but we must also have national standards. We must have this sort of debate here and develop a cross-Government policy. The Oireachtas must have a good understanding of what we are doing here and be in a position to recommend new policies.

That is the spirit in which I welcomed this debate. I think we saw the diversity of views. While the majority of Senators saw the need, the alternative view was offered by Sinn Féin. Misgivings regarding asking schools to do too much were expressed. Even Senator Boyhan said that he did not want the nanny state or a one-size-fits-all approach but he did recognise that the attitude of schools must be much more open. This can be achieved by a code. Senator Gallagher rightly pointed to the invasion of family life. Indeed, one of the contributory factors for one of my colleagues was the pressure that came from social media and how that can impact on people. In advancing this discussion, we need to be conscious, as Senator Gallagher said, of the pace of technological change and the danger that regulators always arrive breathless and late, as some have described. Regulators can often chase a problem that turns out to be yesterday's problem while tomorrow's problem has moved on.

We must approach this in a fairly flexible and open way paying tribute to a lot of the really good work that is happening in our schools. Perhaps people do not know enough about some of the stuff that is happening out there and the quality of teaching, learning and resource material being offered to students. I am content not to oppose this and to work with the Seanad and the Lower House to get the best possible outcome. It will be very interesting when we see what is coming back from direct consultation with schools. Many of the practices are quite good but there is no doubt that many will have cause to improve. Apart from Webwise, there is a lot of work in supporting teachers in the digital area. I thank the Senators for their contributions.