Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being with us today. This is a very important topic. The purpose of bringing this Fine Gael Private Members' motion, in particular in relation to smartphones and social media use, is how we regulate it. I have talked to parents, school principals, schools and teachers. Schools are taking the lead themselves. Without any regulation, they are putting bans in place in primary schools and post-primary schools. They are trying to manage this but we need additional support for children, young people and parents because it is very difficult.

As my colleague stated, a quarter or 24% of six-year-olds have their own smartphone. They literally have access to the world in their pocket. Just 28% of parents use parental controls. Ireland prides itself on education. We are proud of the fact that we have the highest number of third level graduates in the world. We pride ourselves on everything that we do well, but we also need to pride ourselves on the measures we are taking to protect children and young people and to support parents on this issue. There can be a lack of knowledge of the impact. We see the very graphic road safety campaigns about what happens with phone use. We hear about people using their phones to text while they are driving and suddenly we see these graphic images of what can happen when they lose attention for a few minutes. Should we also have campaigns as well, with the assistance of the Department, on the impact of the overuse of smartphones - children being up to 3 o'clock and 4 o'clock in the middle of the night or when a child gets withdrawn, anxious or isolated when a parent is trying to work out how to have a happy child who is engaged in sports activities?

Part of what we are saying is that there is a need for a whole-of-government approach. It is very much about how we fund clubs and sports. Sports capital funding is all part of it. We must support parents, coaches and volunteers to get involved, but there also needs to be a campaign of awareness. There needs to be something with teeth. Teeth is saying that under the age of 13, people are not allowed to purchase a smartphone. That is a bulwark parents have. They can say that is the guidance. We know because we have the information and the research and we know the impacts of this. A public campaign of awareness could show the impacts because what we want to see is a healthy, happy child or young person or a student in school.

I sit on the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. One of the very first reports I did was about how one in three children suffers from cyberbullying. It is non-stop. It is all through the night. They can be on their phones and not sleeping. Their attention spans are lower. We are seeing this in particular since Covid. The Minister probably recognises that life changed during Covid. Everything became more insular. People were in their homes. Everything was online, including shopping. Of course there was a lot more dependence on our phones, especially for young people. There is something that we can do now. We know about the commercial aspect and that it is addictive. We see it ourselves. We know that it dictates our moods and causes mood swings. I say that as an adult who did not grow up with a smartphone and who has only had a smartphone in the past ten or 15 years. In the past 20 years we have witnessed the impact of the Internet and smartphones. Ireland, as a country, can take a stand.

We are asking the Minister to give us the teeth to implement this motion. Let us give it teeth. Let us have a campaign that shows graphically the impact on young people. With our schools, let us try to show we are able to give guidance and support to parents and that we are there with them. We want to say that it is the right thing to do not to have a phone until a child is of a certain age, that a child does not have consent up to the age 16 to open accounts, and that there is digital consent. This approach could also include the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. We are working with the companies to ensure those measures are in place.

I thank the Minister for her time. She will hear from many of our other colleagues here but there is a lead, which I believe is for her Department to deal with social media companies. That will ensure we have a future here in Ireland of which we are proud. We are proud of our education. Let us also be proud of ensuring that we have healthy, happy children that are not impacted by the overuse of screens and smartphones.