Dan Neville
Question:273. Deputy Dan Neville asked the Minister for Education and Skills the procedure for dealing with advice to school principals in dealing with response to cyber bullying. [13995/13]
View answerWednesday, 20 March 2013
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As the Deputy is probably aware, on 29 January last, Minister Fitzgerald and I published the Action Plan on Bullying which sets out twelve actions to help prevent and tackle bullying in primary and second level schools. I have ring-fenced €500,000 to support implementation of these actions this year. As part of the Action Plan, new anti-bullying procedures for all primary and second level schools are currently in development in consultation with the education partners. These new procedures will include a specific reference to cyber bullying. These will be issued to all schools at the beginning of the next school year.
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. Implementation of the Action Plan on Bullying will increase capacity in these areas and build on my Departments's current strategy to ensure that internet safety is mainstreamed throughout the school's teaching, learning and other practices. Resources are available on www.webwise.ie and include guidelines on developing Acceptable Use Policies.