Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 December 2014
124. Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the measures that have been taken in the past year to deal with cyberbullying; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48597/14]
View answerThe Office for Internet Safety (OIS) is an Executive Office within my Department. The OIS has been engaging with the issue of counteracting cyberbullying on an ongoing basis and has issued a series of booklets on internet safety including one dedicated to the topic of cyberbullying. A total of 18,459 copies of the cyberbullying booklet have been distributed to parents, teachers and youth groups by the OIS during 2014.
In addition the OIS produced a leaflet on cyberbullying to coincide with the International Safer Internet Day by producing a leaflet on how to counteract cyberbullying. The leaflet was made available electronically on the website www.internetsafety.ie and copies were distributed to libraries, citizens information offices and to members of the public on request. To date over 21,000 leaflets have been distributed.
The OIS acts as the coordinator for the EU Safer Internet Programme in Ireland. One of the four partner organisations in the Programme is the Professional Development Service for Teachers Technology in Education which is part of the Department of Education and Skills. PDST coordinates Ireland's activities for the annual international Safer Internet Day in February each year. For Safer Internet Day in February 2014, PDST launched #Up2us. This is an anti-bullying kit to tackle cyberbullying and it has been widely distributed to schools and youth organisations throughout the country. The Law Reform Commission has published an issues paper on 'Cyber-crime affecting personal safety, privacy and reputation including cyber-bullying'. The LRC has requested that submissions or comments be returned to them by 19 January 2015 and I look forward to their final report in due course.
