Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan, TD, is today convening a Youth Forum on Online Safety to listen to the views of children and young people about their experiences online. As part of his priority to strengthen online safety for children and young people, on a national level and under the Irish Presidency of the EU, Minister O’Donovan wants to include the voice of children and young people in discussions on the future of online safety.
The Youth Forum is being held in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, and involves
approximately 100 participants aged between 10 and 17 years from across Ireland. The participants will discuss key aspects of online safety across five themes:- Children’s and young people’s right to be heard, and their lived experiences online
- Defining online safety through a child right’s lens
- Children and young people as partners in designing safer digital spaces
- Access, restrictions and the best interests of the child and young person
- Equality, inclusion and diverse digital experiences
Speaking ahead of the of the Youth Forum, Minister O’Donovan commented:
Strengthening the online safety of children and young people is my foremost priority. We are working on this at national level, but it is also vital that we work with our colleagues across the EU to protect children and young people in the online world. This will be my focus under Ireland’s Presidency of the EU.
As part of my work, I want to listen to children and young people on their views of the online world – the positive and the negative – and thoughts and ideas they may have on how to make the online world safer and more inclusive for everyone. I also want to hear their views on restrictions to accessing specific parts of the online world.
The Department of Culture, Communications and Sport has worked with the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) as lead delivery partner for the Youth Forum, where they have brought their expertise in youth participation, safeguarding and data protection requirements to the planning process, as well as in coordination with Foróige, which has recruited children and young people from across its nationwide network as participants for the consultation.
The Department also has in place a Youth Forum Working Group that comprises OCO, Coimisiún na Meán, Foróige and representative organisations Webwise, Belong To, ISPCC, Irish Traveller Movement and Irish Heart Foundation, to advise and support the Department, with several participants in the Youth Forum also recruited through many of the representative organisation networks.
The Department, OCO and fellow Working Group members have worked together to develop a consultation format for the Youth Forum that will seek to bring greater clarity to and understanding of the experiences of children and young people online, including any additional measures they may wish to see introduced to strengthen their safety in the online world.
A report on the findings from the Youth Forum will be submitted to the Minister over the summer.
Minister O’Donovan concluded:
It is important and necessary to listen to children and young people and the valuable insights they have about their experiences online. I look forward to receiving the feedback from the Forum and to engaging further over time with children and young people on the crucial matter of strengthening online safety.
No comments:
Post a Comment