Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 May 2015
122. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the degree to which social media continues to be monitored in respect of bullying of children and teenagers; the extent to which such incidents or practices are conveyed to his Department on a regular basis, with a view to determining an appropriate response; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21034/15]
View answerThe Action Plan On Bullying: Report of the Anti-Bullying Working Group to the Minister for Education and Skills which was published in January 2013 clearly recognised the necessity to tackle this issue in a holistic way which saw schools as pivotal, but placed the issue within a much wider social context. Cyberbullying is just one aspect of bullying, but one given the rapid expansion of access to technology by young people which has come much more sharply into focus.
It is important for parents to talk to children about bullying whether it is through social media or not. Data gathered from nine year old children as part of Growing Up in Ireland, the National Longitudinal Survey commissioned by my Department, showed that based on responses from their mothers, 24% of children had been victims of bullying in the past year. This represents a significantly lower proportion than that reported by children themselves, which was reported at 40%, suggesting either that many parents are unaware that their child has experienced bullying in the previous year, or that they may have different perspectives about what constitutes bullying.
Schools are strengthening collaboration and interaction with youth services and promote the active participation by pupils in youth focused services within their local communities. DCYA supports the National Youth Health Programme which is in partnership with the HSE and the National Youth Council of Ireland. The programme's aims are 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, and includes programmes aimed at exploring bullying and cyberbullying with young people.
The Minister of Communications established an Internet Content Governance Advisory Group under the chair of Dr. Brian O’Neil in 2013 to ensure our national policy represents best practice in offering the same online protections to our citizens as those available in the offline world. The Group’s report was approved by Cabinet and published in May 2014 and makes several recommendations aimed at protecting children and young people without unduly limiting their opportunities and rights online. Along with changes to institutional, administrative and legal structures, the report makes four specific recommendations on cyberbullying, aimed at providing stronger supports for tackling this issue through primary and post-primary curricula, and additional training and awareness measures
The Office for Internet Safety is an Executive Office of the Department of Justice and Equality and has been established by the Government to take a lead responsibility for internet safety in Ireland, particularly as it relates to children. As part of its work it holds an annual Safer Internet Day, which has included a rollout of a social marketing campaign specifically targeted at young people.
