Irish Education Minister Norma Foley has warned parents to think carefully before purchasing a smartphone for their primary school-age children, because they could be see to inappropriate content that “nobody would want them to be exposed to.”
The Fianna Fáil Minister made the remarks this past Wednesday during an interview on the Stand Out podcast with Ian O’Connell on Radio Kerry.
“You speak about all that people can be exposed to,” Foley said, during a discussion on cyberbullying and online safety.
“Currently in our primary schools, we’re working very hard to push out a program where we’re encouraging parents and guardians to give a second thought, really, to the purchase of smartphones.”
She added: “I think what young people can be carrying in their pocket can sometimes be content that nobody would want them to see and nobody would want them to be exposed to.”
The Minister said that her Department were running “a program of supports” for “parents and guardians,” but that while schools played a role in this, “it very much must come from the parents.”
“I can see the enormous benefit of technology,” she said.
“But we would want our young people to be wise around it, to be safe in the space of technology as well.”
The Minister went on to add that age-verification on social media websites should be “significantly enforced,” even up to and including having to provide ID before one can make an account on a social media site like Facebook or Instagram.
“Yeah, 100%,” she said.
“I think we need to see from all the providers, collectively, a strong enforcement of age verification.”
She added: “It will never be acceptable that a child can have access to material that is wholly inappropriate. So at primary school we’re looking at that side of it.”
In terms of broader internet regulation, Foley went on to say that “nationally” bodies like Coimisiún na Meán – Ireland’s new state media commission – would help to make sure providers “rigorously enforce what needs to be enforced.”
Notably, Coimisiún na Meán has the power to regulate so-called “misinformation” online.
“It’s like anything,” Foley said.
“There can be enormous potential for good, but in the wrong hands, if used constructively, it can be very harmful…many people today are depending on many social media outlets for their information, I think we need to be able to disseminate between what’s truthful and what might be less truthful.”