Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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269. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to the Net Children Go Mobile study on children’s use of the Internet in Ireland, recent research which found that 22% of children have experienced bullying online; and his plans to address this matter within the school system. [7862/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I can confirm to the Deputy that I am aware of the findings of the Net Children Go Mobile Report in relation to online bullying. The Report provides the initial findings from Ireland and is part of the Net Children Go Mobile European two-year research project under the European Commission's Safer Internet Programme. It builds on previous research by the EU Kids Online network into children's risks and safety online. My Department has provided funding towards the Irish element of this research and I look forward to the final report which is expected later in the year. In January 2013, my colleague, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, and I published the Action Plan on Bullying. Since then, good progress has been made on implementing actions designed to help prevent and tackle bullying in primary and second level schools. These actions focus on support for schools, teacher training, research and awareness raising and aim to ensure that all forms of bullying, including cyber bullying, are addressed.

New National Procedures on Anti Bullying which include a specific reference to cyberbullying were launched last September. These are currently being adopted and implemented by all 4,000 primary and post primary schools in the country.

My Department has supported awareness raising initiatives in relation to tackling bullying. These include Safer Internet Day, an initiative, targeted at young people, to address internet safety issues, including cyberbullying. I was very pleased to launch Safer Internet Day 2014 in Ireland last week.

Central to promoting safer use of the Internet by young people is a strong commitment to changing behaviour and raising the knowledge, skills and attitudes around preventing, responding to and reporting cyber bullying incidents. The continued implementation of the Action Plan on Bullying will increase capacity in these areas and build on my Department's current strategy to ensure that internet safety is mainstreamed throughout schools' teaching, learning and other practices. Resources are available on www.webwise.ie and include guidelines on developing Acceptable Use Policies.

Implementation of these and other actions identified in the Plan will continue in 2014.