Fine Gael Dun Laoghaire TD and former headmistress, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, has today (Sunday) called for an all-Party approach to tackle the destructive potential of social media. Deputy Mitchell O’Connor added that the week children return to school is an opportune time to discuss the devastating impact cyber bullying is having on our children and teenagers.
“It is impossible to quantify how many deaths have been caused or contributed to in this country by the negative elements of social media. The unconstrained venom being directed at individuals on Twitter, FaceBook and YouTube is undoubtedly doing untold damage.
“There are fresh reports this weekend of the sort of abuse young people are being subjected to online. A video of a Dublin teenager in an argument with a group of young men has been viewed more than a quarter of a million times, despite the fact that the first publisher, YouTube, took it down as soon as their monitors noticed that unacceptable messages were being posted about it.
“The move by YouTube to take down the video did not stop it going viral on various other sites. It’s too easy to take a critical view of the behaviour shown in the video. Most adults recognise that they did things in their teenage years that they’d never do again. The difference, of course, is in the past, every teenage mistake was not recorded on a smartphone. It’s shocking to that now every mistake can be immortalised online.
“A further cause for concern is new software which allows pornographic material to be sent to and viewed by a young person, before disappearing from their device’s screen and hard drive within minutes. The nature of this damaging software makes it impossible to track or trace.
“It’s time politicians, school authorities and parents did everything in their power to limit the risk being posed to our children and teenagers. Clearly, the current lack of regulation of social media is dangerous to people of all ages. But the threat it poses to the mental health of vulnerable young people is of particular concern to me as a former headmistress. I would urge the Ministers for Communication, for Children and for Education to consider what initiatives could be implemented to deal with this threat.”