Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last year, the World Health Organization, WHO, designated the compulsive playing of video games as a new mental health condition. We are not talking openly about this issue. Parents are worried and feel helpless when they see the damage being done and they do not understand or know the dangers because we are not having the conversation. Some parents will be frightened. This condition will obviously not impact every child who picks up a games console. It is time that we prepared. Our children are our future and I fear that we are not looking after their mental health properly because we are not informed enough. I recently called for a new joint committee on mental health to be convened because we need to do much more for mental health in this country.

I ask the Leader to invite the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health back to the House. The last time the committee met was eight months ago. When Senator John Freeman and I and a number of others sought to have the committee reconvene, the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, first refused our request and then agreed to do so. The current position is that the committee will be reconvened. I ask the Leader to speak to the Minister of State about this because it is an urgent matter. The committee has not met for eight months.

Are Senators aware that every Microsoft Xbox is set up on an adult setting on installation? Parents who are not technology savvy often allow their child to set up the console and the child would not know how to change the settings. The settings can be changed to filter out all adult content or to have some adult content. These tech-smart kids will be exposed and inappropriate material will be streaming through the headset while parents are totally unaware, even as they stand beside them. As lawmakers, we need to give parents the tools to protect their children and their mental health and we need to do so quickly. Many of our schools are taking part in the national cybersafety programme specifically designed to empower children and parents to navigate through the online world. The online world has a host of tools that we can harness but we continually come up against threats in it. We need to teach media literacy and equip people with the tools to identify addiction and warning signs.

It is a serious matter that the committee on mental health has not met for eight months. I ask that the Leader request the Minister of State to come to the Chamber to address this issue.