The Department of Communications is to begin a campaign to promote safer use of the Internet, an Oireachtas committee was told today.
17 November is to be a national awareness day to protect computer users who use the Internet.
The joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications also heard details of a new EU-backed Safer Internet Action Plan.
The plan, which will run until 2008, will receive €45 million in EU funding.
It is aiming to step up the fight against illegal content on the Internet by providing more hotlines so that the public can report this material.
At the moment, the Internet hotline in Ireland gets complaints about 130 suspected illegal Internet sites every month.
The EU plan is also hoping to tackle the problem of content on the web which is harmful but may not be illegal by increasing filtering systems and raising awareness of the problem.
