MINISTER WARNS LEO: SMARTPHONES ARE THREAT TO CHILDREN
Minister Jim Daly called for measures to stop ‘damage’ to our young
A MINISTER was so concerned about children’s safety online that he wrote to the Taoiseach to outline his belief that it is ‘the single biggest threat to our nation’s children’.
Jim Daly, junior minister for mental health, urged Leo Varadkar to introduce measures that would force phone companies to block ‘the most vulgar or violent’ online content which he said was being
accessed by children as young as three. ‘Let Ireland be a leader on this issue and do the right thing by our children to stop the irreversible damage... being done to their mental health and general well-being on a daily basis,’ he wrote in correspondence to Leo Varadkar.
Mr Daly said it was of ‘critical concern for our nation’s children’ that the modern scourge of unrestricted underage smartphone use be tackled.
The junior minister last year published the Internet Access for Minors Bill, which proposed that parents would be fined for allowing their children to own smartphones or to have unrestricted internet access. Under the Bill, retailers would also have faced a fine if they sold smartphones to children under 14.
In more recent correspondence, he referred the Taoiseach to the draft Bill he published to ‘ban young children from unsupervised access to the World Wide Web’ which included provisions for ‘portable devices’ which allows ‘unlimited access to adult-rated or illegal content on the internet’ such as smartphones and tablets.
The details of the letter from January 2018 were disclosed under a Freedom of Information request from the Irish Daily Mail.
‘I believe if a credible move is made by governments around the globe, manufacturers of these devices will move swiftly to provide a child-friendly device to the market that will not allow our children as young as three years of age to trip across the most vulgar or violent or inappropriate content on the web that would be illegal to provide to a child in any other format,’ Mr Daly wrote on January 10.
‘Taoiseach, I am convinced that this issue is the single biggest threat to our nation’s children in the current era, and if we do not act now we will all regret it in the very near future,’ he wrote.
Mr Daly told the Irish Daily Mail that he believes the Government, with the assistance of society, can do more, and that raising awareness and highlighting the issue is key. He also warned that some of the consequences of poor online safety have ‘yet to be seen’ but he praised the Mail for its efforts in highlighting the issues. This paper has been running the Protect Our Kids Online campaign, championing the work of cyber-psychologist Dr Mary Aiken and others.
And Mr Daly’s warning comes just weeks after his Government’s plan to set the digital age of consent
at the lowest possible age of 13 was shot down by the Opposition, who to set it at 16. Mr Daly told the Mail: ‘The Gov-ernment can always do more but this is a societal challenge as well. ‘Parents aren’t aware still – despite the best efforts of the Irish Daily Mail and people like myself and whoever else has been trying to highlight this.’ However, despite having previously championed legislation, Mr Daly now says: ‘Legislation may not be the solution. I think awareness is the biggest issue. ‘I think probably the Government just highlighting it is the most pressing thing to be done at the moment.’
The Cork South West TD said his more recent plea to the Taoiseach about establishing a special sub-Cabinet committee to tackle the problem head-on and setting up an inter-departmental meeting in his January letter was an effort at the time to get ‘the Government to react and to get the Government to join up, get the departments to join together’. However, he still believes manufacturers have ‘huge, huge questions to answer’ and said they can make smartphone content childfriendly. Speaking about his now shelved Bill, Mr Daly said: ‘It was about this unlimited and unsupervised access, and again, that comes back to responsibility.’
Mr Daly believes an online Open Policy Debate in Kilmainham in March, which included Government representatives, is ‘evidence’ of reforms. ‘It’s evidence of the key players like Education, Children... talking, working together and coming at this together so I am satisfied at that,’ he added.
However, the Open Policy Debate was criticised for too heavily representing voices from the technology industry, and not having any panellists who favour minimum ages for smartphone ownership.
A spokesman for the Taoiseach told the Mail, ‘online digital safety is a high priority for himself and for the Government’.
The spokesman added that following the Open Policy Forum on digital safety earlier this year, ‘an inter-departmental group was set up to prepare an action plan on digital safety’.
This plan is expected to be finalised and brought to Cabinet before the end of the month.
AS we report today, Junior Minister Jim Daly has written to the Taoiseach to outline, quite clearly, how the dangers posed by unfettered access to the internet are ‘the single biggest threat to our nation’s children in the current era’.
We couldn’t agree more and indeed must take heart from Minister Daly’s long-term determination in this matter.
As part of our own Protect Our Children Online campaign, this newspaper has been steadfast in its call for measures to tackle these dangers.
The evidence is now incontrovertible that smartphones have a detrimental impact on children, in terms of their physical and mental wellbeing, as well as their educational development.
The Government has already been forced, by a majority of elected representatives in the Dáil, to raise the digital age of consent, that is the age when children can sign contracts with technology companies, from 13 to 16.
And now at least one minister is willing to stand up and seek further action.
And Mr Daly doesn’t hold back when he asks Leo Varadkar: ‘Let Ireland be a leader on this issue and do the right thing by our children to stop the irreversible damage that is being done to their mental health and general well-being on a daily basis.’
Stirring words, Minister. And well said. They are words for which future generations will be grateful.
We suggest the Taoiseach take Mr Daly’s advice and tackle the issue, rather than risk being again overtaken by the issue.