Four Government Ministers will this morning (Wednesday) attend a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs to outline their own Department’s work in the area of cyber safety.
The Ministers were invited to appear before the Committee in light of recent high profile cases involving the deliberate targeting of children and young adults online by sexual predators.
Online safety falls under the remit of a number of Government departments due to the complexity and nature of the internet which requires various institutional and legislative responses at national and EU level.
The Ministers with responsibility for Children, Communications, Education and Justice will use the opportunity to update the Committee on the whole of Government approach to online safety and the extensive work already being undertaken at individual Departmental level.
In advance of the Committee meeting Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr Katherine Zappone stated:
“This a key moment for child protection, both on and offline, in this country. We have achieved Mandatory Reporting of Abuse, Child Protection Statements for groups working with children and a Tusla Budget passing €750m for the first time. Now is an appropriate time to review and examine where we can make further improvements. As a Government we must also listen to voices of children and young people. Their input, their perspectives and their knowledge will guide us to improve the ongoing cross-Government approach to make the internet a safer place.”
The Minister for Communications Denis Naughten will outline his Department’s work specifically on regulations concerning Video Sharing Platform Services, such as YouTube:
“500 hours of video content is being uploaded to YouTube every single minute so it is vital we have the right protections in place. My own Department has direct responsibility for the national implementation of the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive which will strengthen protections for minors from harmful video content. The internet is a tool that brings enormous benefits, but there are risks and dangers that combine anonymity and distance too easily. We want our children to be tech savvy, but safety conscious too and parents must know where they can turn to for help. Today’s Committee meeting is a welcome opportunity to outline the Government’s work in this area. In addition my Department is coordinating the Government’s Open Policy Debate on online safety. The event will take place on Thursday 8 March 2018 in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and it will bring together all the key players in this area including industry, NGOs, parents, youth groups, academia and Government.”
The Minister for Education Richard Bruton added:
“I welcome the opportunity to speak with the Committee today and look forward to discussing the actions that my Department takes to ensure the online safety of children in our schools. There is no doubt that new technologies are fundamentally transforming the world we live in. Never before have our children had access to such a wealth of information, right in the palm of their hand. These changes offer fantastic opportunities for our young people but also pose potential risks, which we as a government must respond to. My Department supports schools in responding to these challenges, ensuring all schools have acceptable usage policies in place and with targeted training and resources. I look forward to discussing these initiatives with the Committee today and working with others to ensure we are responding to new challenges with a ‘whole of government’ approach.“
The Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan will expand on the work of the Department of Justice:
“My Department deals with the criminal and legal aspects of internet safety. Last year we introduced new offences to target child exploitation in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017; the law includes measures to address the use of modern communication technologies as a tool which may lead to child exploitation. I keep the criminal law governing this issue under review and look forward to hearing the views of Committee members. An Garda Síochána is responsible for ensuring the law is upheld and has an active Online Child Exploitation Unit at the Garda National Protection Services Bureau. In recent weeks, we have seen some of the successes of Operation Ketch which targets those possessing and distributing child exploitation material. I commend the Gardaí and strongly support them in this critical work.”
The meeting of the Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs will begin at 10.30am in Committee Room 1, Dáil Éireann.