A new campaign has been launched calling on the Government to introduce greater protections for children online, through the regulation of social media and other digital environments.
'Gen Free: Free to be Kids' is a joint collaboration between several organisations who want to ensure a safer online experience for children and young people.
It is calling for specific and effective legislation to protect children online, as well as smartphone free primary and secondary schools, until effective legislation is in place.
Gen Free said that digital literacy should become a fourth pillar of the education system.
It is calling for the resourcing of online safety educational programmes for parents, as well as the launch of a public awareness campaign aimed at parents outlining the pitfalls of the online world and excessive screen time for children.
Gen Free officially launched its campaign at an event yesterday evening at Temple Carrig Secondary School in Greystones, Co Wicklow which was attended by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.
"I’m pleased to be part of this conversation, and we know that just asking online companies to do the right thing and remove harmful content isn’t enough," Mr Donnelly said.
"It’s why I’ve established the online health taskforce and asked them to develop responses to harms caused by certain types of online activity."
He added: "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."
Gen Free is supporting work already undertaken by CyberSafeKids, Temple Carrig Secondary School, and Gen Free (Waterford), as well as building upon the "It Takes A Village" community wellbeing initiative established across eight primary schools in Greystones and Delgany last year.
"Reports suggest that children are extremely lucrative users of online platforms," said Alex Cooney, CEO of CyberSafeKids, and member of the newly established Online Health Taskforce.
"The companies financially benefiting from children using their services must be the bodies tasked with financing and resourcing our proposals," Ms Cooney said.
Eoghan Cleary is a teacher and assistant principal at Temple Carrig Secondary School in Greystones, and a member of the newly established Online Health Taskforce.
"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," Mr Cleary said.
