merrion street

I am delighted to be with you all here at the Science Gallery this morning at this important event that combines two positive powerful and influential forces – youth work and digital media.

When I was a youth the digital world and all the wonderful things it makes possible was the stuff of science fiction.

If we wanted to meet up with someone we had to set a time and place – we had no texting or social media. If we wanted information we trundled off to the library and hoped we could find the book we wanted. If we wanted to shop or network it meant going out – now we can do that anytime, from anywhere, online.

The internet is a wonderful resource for us all – as I am sure those of you here today working with Ireland’s youth will agree.

I extracted a few figures about the digital world that perhaps make a wider point.

• Nearly ten million photos are uploaded to Facebook per hour.

• There are over 370,000 babies born worldwide every day. That would be about a twelfth of the population of Ireland. Yet there are more iPhones sold daily than there are babies born!

• Several billion Euro is spent annually in buying virtual goods (to play online games).

• I was a little amused to see that Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Britney Spears have more Twitter followers than the combined population of Sweden, Chile, Israel, Australia and North Korea.

If I am to believe what I found on the internet recently, I’d tell you that based on research in the USA a typical teenager spends 31 hours on the internet per week. Of that he or she spends about

• three and a half hours messaging friends

• two hours watching video clips or using chat rooms

• two hours watching pornography

• In comparison the average teenager spends about 4 hours a week doing homework.

Here in Ireland – according to a report launched last week for UPC - the average adult is spending over two and a half hours a day online. One thing was very clear from that report – almost all (97%) of those surveyed regarded digital technology as beneficial. The online world is so important to some people that about half said their broadband was more important than having a telephone, with 1 in 5 saying it was more important than TV.

The vast majority of young people are online today. Those of you here today working with youth, know more than most, that the digital world is very important to them – helping them keep in touch and entertained. This point was really brought home a few weeks ago in this auditorium at the “Digital Youth” symposium at which one researcher said that about half of the young people she surveyed said “the internet is the best place to know me”.

I know this gathering will be hearing later today from Dr. Brian O’Neill. His research as part of the “EU Kids online” project shows that Irish children or young people are often not progressing to more creative activities online. That is something I think we need to take note of.

Most of you here will have heard of the 80/20 rule. Whether or not you place much store by it I was surprised at the number of times 80% featured in internet statistics. For example:-

• About 80% of eMail is estimated to be SPAM

• Reputedly 80% of images on the internet are pornography

I don’t know how reliable either of those figures are.

I do know that here in Ireland only about 80% of the adult population are online.

What about the 1 in 5 that are not online?

Nationally nearly two out of every three people aged 60 or over don’t use the internet.

That’s a concern for me – because those people are missing out.

They’re missing out on some of the things most of us – and young people in particular like to do online – like accessing entertainment, keeping in touch with friends and being more connected.

They’re missing out too on opportunities to save money by shopping and transacting online.

There’s an economic dimension too. It costs less – often considerably less – to provide public services online compared to traditional over the counter services. More people transacting online means we can provide public services more cost effectively and efficiently. That’s another reason why achieving more digital inclusion will be a real win-win outcome.

I know many young people – perhaps many of the young people you work with – have made an important contribution to national digital inclusion efforts. Many transition year students are involved in initiatives like “Log-On-Learn” providing basic internet training to older people – or to their peers.

Indeed I was struck by the many parallels between the characteristics of youth work and the benefits that are reported to us by new users of the internet.

The similarities include:-

• Complementing formal education

• Boosting self esteem and self confidence

• Building capacity and empowerment

• Opening up new opportunities and expanding horizons

As youth workers I know you will be focused on ways to engage the young people you work with. A key theme of today’s conference is to look at ways to use digital media to do that. If anyone here has worked with young people involved in intergenerational teaching you will know how rewarding most of them find it.

There may be opportunities to encourage more young people to impart some of the digital skills they have to others. For those that may need support there are online resources available – including course notes and tips for trainers at sites like “GetYourFolksOnLine . ie “

In Government we are working to maximize job prospects – including for our young people. We are doing this by attracting more corporate Investment to Ireland – and we have had a significant measure of success in that to date.

We are doing it by ensuring good educational opportunities for our young people – and by modifying our education responses to take account of evolving opportunities – one of the reasons we are modernizing the Junior Cycle.

Of course learning is not limited to school or college – we learn every day – and now the internet opens up all kinds of new opportunities to learn whether informally – or in a more structured way – tailoring your learning to your interests.

We are also focusing on growing more job opportunities in small indigenous companies. My own Department is looking to safeguard Irish indigenous jobs and to stimulate the creation of more. In the first phase of the National Digital Strategy - to be launched in the next couple of months - we will be focusing on exploiting the opportunities of digital to support and grow small business in Ireland by encouraging and assisting more of them to trade online and access more market opportunities – ensuring more jobs – jobs those with digital skills should be very well placed to fill.

Digital media and the internet allows many more people to showcase their creativity. I am pleased to see that digital media projects are on the agenda here today. For many young people, their creativity, expressed or developed online may well determine their future opportunities or career paths.

We all want the best for our young people. We know that the digital world can a crucial enabler of that.

I was really pleased to be able to announce earlier this year, the rollout of 100 mega bits broadband to every second level schools – all will be connected by 2014. With the infrastructure in place, the technology accessible, and the guidance of progressive educators, we will have the potential to ensure that ICT will play a central role in the development of the digital citizens of the future. I very much hope that those facilities – including their industrial strength internet connectivity will also be available to the informal education sector and the wider community.

Investing in digital – the infrastructure and the skills is an investment in the future of our young people – and in the future society and economy they will be living in.

My own view is that that digital media should be part of everyone’s learning – whether in or out of formal education. We all need to work to ensure that this will increasingly be the case.

I have seen the positive impacts digital media can have.

I’d like to tell you briefly about a digital focused education initiative my Department has supported – some of you here today may know about it – its called “Future Creators”. It is being run by the Digital Hub in collaboration with NCAD and funded by my Department – Future Creators worked with young people from a mix of backgrounds outside of school.

The aim was to provide a digital learning experience and to explore models of digital learning. The focus was on digital media, including online publishing, short film making and “App” development.

The programme involved an element of exploration, some “learning by doing” as well as a degree of self directed learning.

The young people on the programme liked it very much. Their parents and teachers did too. We had it independently evaluated. The evaluators found that those participating in Future Creators benefited in many ways:

• They developed new skills,

• Their engagement levels were high.

• Some were surprised at how much they could achieve.

• Their social and interpersonal skills developed,

• their levels of confidence improved,

• their levels of ambition went up,

• their performance in their normal school environment improved,

• many of them are now keen on careers in the digital media sector.

I see that as more evidence of the importance and the potential of digital learning environments. Digital media, particularly when coupled with the right guidance and support, can facilitate increased levels of creativity and innovation.

I suppose we would claim that we, the Irish, are a creative lot, and we like to communicate. Using digital tools to create and the internet to disseminate who knows what we can achieve? I do know that some of the world’s most popular products and services now worth billions did not exist a decade ago.

Relationships are a big part of youth. There is however one type of relationship we would all be better off without – the bullying relationship. All of you know of the recent very tragic events related to this issue.

Bullying is insidious. Where it occurs it can be very damaging to those who fall victim to it. Whether it occurs on or off line we all need to do whatever we can to tackle it. The problem is one of cruelty of some individuals to others. Sometimes it is perpetrated online. I know Dr. Mona O’Moore will be focusing on bullying this morning and her insights will I hope assist a better understanding the problem. In my opinion it seems to be a complex issue – one that should be tackled from different angles – focusing on the perpetrators and on the victims. In tackling the issue we will need to ensure that all young people have the skills they need in terms of social and digital interaction.

In closing I just want to commend all here who are involved in youth work. Your efforts, voluntary and otherwise, make a real difference in the lives of young people. Our society is very much better off as a result of your efforts – and those efforts that deserve more recognition.

I hope you will all enjoy today’s proceedings and that at the end of the day we will have identified ways to make better use of digital media in further engaging and helping young people.

Thank you.