Open Policy Debate on Online Safety, 08.03.2018

Open Policy Debate on Online Safety,
Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 08.03.2018 

Full report on the day can be found here:

On Thursday 8th March, four Comhairle members from Clare and Wicklow participated in an Open Policy Debate on Online Safety, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin. They were invited to attend due to their recent presentation on this topic at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children & Youth Affairs on 7th February. Read more about this here:

Proceedings on the day were opened officially by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, followed by an opening address from Ms Gail Kent, Director for the Data Economy, DG-CONNECT. A panel discussion followed, looking at themes such as Education and Awareness; the role of Government and Stakeholders and Regulatory Changes, to name but a few. The morning panel was made up of the following contributors:

• Google – Ryan Meade
• Children’s Rights Alliance – Tanya Ward
• An Garda Síochána – Detective Superintendent Declan Daly
• National Parent’s Council – Áine Lynch
• Hotline.ie – Ana Niculescu
• Webwise Advisory Panel– Síofra Harkin

This was followed by round table discussions on the topic where the young people had the opportunity to contribute their valuable thoughts on online safety to this captive audience.

In the afternoon there was a second panel presentation followed by a Q&A discussion. The theme was based on the feedback and comments from the tables from the morning session and addressed the audience input. The afternoon panel was made up of the following contributors:

• Facebook – Niamh Sweeney
• Academic – Brian O’Neill
• ISPCC – Grainia Long
• Digital Rights Ireland – Antóin Ó Lachtnáin
• Webwise Advisory Panel – Cillian Fogarty