Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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64. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the steps being taken to ensure young persons' cyber safety and her plans to publish a national strategy on children’s cyber safety. [50172/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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Protecting children from online abuse, bullying and grooming requires a whole of government approach. The devastating effects are becoming increasingly obvious in our homes, schools and communities.

While my department does not have a lead responsibility in this area, it does play an important role in a wider range of actions across a number of departments.

Last week, I met with the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten and the Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan, to discuss the cross-Government collaboration that is needed. A lot of work is being done by individual departments. However we need to develop an action plan involving all relevant departments to ensure that our actions are coordinated, complementary and robust. It is our intention to include the Minister for Health and the Minister for Education in the development of the action plan.

I am commencing all remaining provisions of the Children First Act 2015 on 11 December, 2017. The ongoing role of the statutory Children First Interdepartmental Implementation Group , which is chaired by my Department, is to ensure consistent implementation of the provisions of the Children First Act and Guidance across Government Departments, the HSE, the Gardaí and Tusla. Issues in relation to internet safety which have a child protection dimension and which require cross-Government collaboration or support can be raised in the context of the Group.

The National Youth Health Programme is a partnership between the HSE, the National Youth Council of Ireland and my Department. It aims to provide a broad based, flexible health promotion / education support and training service, to youth organisations and to all those working with young people in out-of-school settings. The ‘Web Safety in Youth Work’ resource, available on the National Youth Council’s website, provides valuable advice to young people on reporting online behaviour and on passing on concerns about the protection and welfare of a child or young person.

Combatting online child grooming is a matter for my colleague the Minister for Justice and Equality, and is addressed as part of a wide-ranging package of measures aimed at the reform of Ireland’s criminal law on sexual offences, set out in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act, 2017. The Office for Internet Safety, an executive office of the Department of Justice and Equality, was established by the Government to take a lead responsibility for internet safety in Ireland, particularly as it relates to children.

In seeking to address the problem of bullying in all its forms we must tackle its root causes. This includes a focus on tackling prejudice, including homophobia, where it exists in our schools and wider society. My Department is currently developing an LGBTI+ National Youth Strategy, which is the first of its kind in the world and also makes a contribution towards the Government's broader commitment to continue to strive for full inclusion of LGBTI+ people in Ireland.

The implementation of the Action Plan on Bullying, which is being led by the Department of Education and Skills, provides the framework for the Government’s absolute commitment to working with a broad base of interests to protect children from bullying and the often devastating consequences that it can have.