A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN calling on the Government to protect children online has been launched.

‘Gen Free: Free to be Kids’ wants to see legislation introduced which would force social media companies and digital service providers to guarantee that children are not viewing harmful content online. 

The campaign is a joint collaboration between several organisations seeking to ensure a safer online experience for children and young people.

The launch event, which was held at Temple Carrig Secondary School in Greystones last night, was attended by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and HSE Senior Medical Officer Dr Catherine Conlon. 

The campaign has outlined three priorities which it wants to see implemented in the lifetime of the next Dáil. 

As well as regulatory legislation, it also wants to see primary and secondary schools be smartphone-free and for digital literacy to become a fourth pillar of the education system. This would include the resourcing of online safety educational programs for parents.

Gen Free is also calling for a public awareness campaign aimed at parents, which would educate them on what children are exposed to online and the impact of excessive screen time on them. Schools would also receive wellbeing training and other support services.

Last month, the Irish Medical Organisation called for smartphone and social media usage to be treated as a “public health emergency”. 

According to the CyberSafeKids ‘Left To Their Own Devices‘ report, 82% of 8-12 year olds already have their own social media or instant messaging account, regardless of a minimum age restriction of 13 on most popular platforms.

The report also found that a quarter of children aged between 8 and 12 have been upset by harmful content online. 

The chair of the IMO Consultants Committee Professor Matthew Sadlier, who chaired the campaign launch event, said:

The radical changes in behaviour of children that we have seen since the introduction of immersive digital technology is having an overwhelming harmful effect.

“It is long past the time for a change in how society in general views these technologies and how governments regulate them to ensure that the only childhood each person gets is free from unnecessary harms,” he said. 

‘Public health crisis’

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, who took part in a panel discussion at the event, said the Government is aware that just asking online companies to remove harmful content “isn’t enough”.

The Minister launched the Online Health Taskforce, which has been allocated €1 million in funding for public awareness campaigns, last week. 

“This is a public health crisis and I know as a government we have already responded with legislation, and I am determined that if further legislation is needed it will be forthcoming,” Donnelly said. 

Alex Cooney, CEO of CyberSafeKids and member of the Online Health Taskforce, said the internet “was not designed with children in mind”. 

“It was designed by adults for adult use and we know that globally, children make-up a third of online users,” she said.

“Reports suggest that children are extremely lucrative users of online platforms. The companies financially benefiting from children using their services must be the bodies tasked with financing and resourcing our proposals.”

Eoghan Cleary, teacher and assistant principal at Temple Carrig Secondary School in Greystones, said: “In the last three years there has been a growing realisation that our kids are being harmed online.

“I have been giving talks to primary and secondary school parents since 2017 on the potential harmful effects of the online world and it is great to see a critical mass of academics, NGOs and parents becoming active in this space,” he said. 

Cleary, who is also a member of the Online Health Taskforce, said it’s now time for parents, guardians and educators to mandate the government to act. 

“They need our backing if they are to stand up to the overwhelming power these tech giants wield.”

Age verification

Education Minister Norma Foley is currently working to introduce a ban on mobile phones in secondary schools. 

“I’m very clear that I think we need to establish in our schools a culture of non-acceptance of the mobile phone,” she said last month.

In November, she introduced a new Government policy to encourage parents to avoid buying smartphones for primary school-aged children. 

When asked earlier this month about the prospect of introducing age limits for social media use for children, something Australia is planning to do, Foley said: “All those issues around age verification are very high on my own agenda.

“I think a body of work should be done there. I think age verification is hugely, hugely important,” she said.

“For our part in education, we are going to work where we are at present in terms of the cooperation we’re receiving from schools and from parents.

“We’re also going a step further in that we will continue to provide the education that’s necessary to teach young people as to how they should be safe online.”