Children as young as eight exposed to ‘disturbing and damaging’ online content

By Cate McCurry, PA

Children as young as eight are being routinely exposed to “disturbing and damaging” content online, with teachers seeing the fallout in classrooms across the island of Ireland, a teachers’ conference has been told.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (Into) adopted a resolution at its annual congress demanding immediate action to protect children from harmful digital environments and to hold social media companies accountable for their failings.

Last September, CyberSafeKids published a report revealing that 65 per cent of children aged eight to 12 in Ireland had been contacted by a stranger online.

It found that a quarter of these children reported being upset or negatively affected by harmful content, including scams, harassment, horror imagery and sexually explicit material.

 

A similar number reported being distressed by unwanted and unsolicited contact.

The Into conference was told that these children are deeply affected, with some experiencing severe distress, and teachers and parents reporting signs of anxiety and emotional withdrawal.

Into has demanded that the Government holds social media platforms to account where they fail to provide a safe environment for young users or to take steps to protect children from harmful content.

The union said it will also push for urgent legislative action, including enforceable standards, age verification and proper resourcing of regulatory bodies.

Into said it was also important that there is engagement with parents.

The union's central executive committee representative Annmarie Conway said: “We are no longer dealing with hypothetical risks.

“This is real harm, happening to real children, right now. Platforms that present themselves as family-friendly are routinely exposing children to the very worst the internet has to offer.

“We have a duty to protect them. And if tech companies and governments won’t act fast enough, we will not stay silent.”

Into general secretary John Boyle said: “For too long, regulators in Ireland and across Europe have been playing catch-up.

“Social media giants, emboldened by an increasingly hands-off approach to moderation, motivated by recent developments at X/Twitter, have prioritised engagement metrics over user safety.

“The Into’s own decision to leave X/Twitter last year was a reflection of the platform’s deteriorating standards and failure to protect users from abuse.

“The union now pledges to take the campaign for online child safety beyond the school gates, bringing together educators, parents, policymakers and the wider community to demand change.

“This is not just a tech issue, it’s a child protection issue. And we will treat it as such.”

Proposing the motion, Gavan Duffy of the Derry branch, said: “Conversations about legislating the internet in general and children’s access in particular are going to increase and they’re going to happen here.

“That the Into should have a view on such an important issue to our children, our schools and our society is self-evident.”