Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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816. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if he will discuss with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources proposals aimed at providing a modern legislative framework to tackle the acute problem of cyber bullying; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32654/14]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I share the member’s concerns and recognise the scale of our challenge is considerable: there are an ever increasing number of social media outlets and platforms to use them on. Research on the problem shows there are no simple answers and there is no magic solution to tackling this complex social issue.

The Minister of Communications established an Internet Content Governance Advisory Group under the chair of Dr. Brian O’Neil in December of last year to ensure our national policy represents best practice in offering the same online protections to our citizens as those available in the offline world.

The Group’s report was approved by Cabinet and published last month and makes several recommendations aimed at protecting children and young people without unduly limiting their opportunities and rights online. Along with changes to institutional, administrative and legal structures, the report makes four specific recommendations on cyberbullying aimed at providing stronger supports for tackling this issue through primary and post-primary curricula and additional training and awareness measures. With regard to the internet It is important to remember that there are many positive aspects about this , and that the best way forward for parents is to proactively engage with their children in their endeavours, to ensure that they are able to maximise their enjoyment of the internet in the safest possible manner.

Parents should discuss with their children the potential dangers that exist and encourage them to bring up any difficulties or problems with other users that they may be interacting with on the Internet. Parents should learn more about what their children are doing online and become familiar with the systems they use.

Many of the technologies that children use today have resources that can be used to help protect children from inappropriate or obscene . Filtering , Blocking and Parental Control Systems are among some of the options available. Research relating to Ireland showed only a quarter of parents blocks or filters websites (28%) and/or tracks the websites visited by their children (24%).

In 2013 the Minister for Education and Science launched the Action Plan on Bullying Since the Action Plan was launched, two successful awareness raising initiatives have been rolled out. Internet Safety Day was held again on February 11th this year. As part of this, the information service for young people, SpunOut, had a major focus on internet safety issues including bullying through its website and social media channels which reach thousands of young people every day.