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THE FIRST MEETING of a Government body set up to look at issues relating to the internet – including online bullying and harassment – has taken place today, ahead of a public consultation later this year.
The Internet Content Governance Advisory Group met to discuss issues around online content and its impact on the lives of children and young people.
The group was set up by Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte in December to give recommendations to the Government on internet governance. There are six members of the group, including chair Dr Brian O’Neill, the head of the school of media at DIT.
The group has been asked to come up with specific recommendations about laws around sharing material online, and the relationship between online service providers, ISPs, the State and citizens over legal material and bullying online.
The group will begin to take submissions from the public in the coming months and will report to the Minister later this year.
Dr O’Neill said the report will focus on ‘identifying specific areas where the existing regulatory and legislative frameworks for internet governance in Ireland could be improved and will make concise recommendations on how to address these issues’.
Minister Rabbitte said it was important for Ireland to facilitate “a safe and encouraging online environment for society and particularly for children and young people” as Ireland focuses increasingly on becoming a tech hub.
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My eircom broad band is 1.75, down and 0.21 up, And someone thinks Ireland can be a tech hub? What a joke.
At least you have broad band. !
Tim the source of your problem right there is “eircom broad band”
It could be the slow speed ru
It is the slow speed Conor but that’s problem.
I just tested my speed there,down102.33 Mbps,up 10.31Mbps,even on a go slow,still way faster than Eircom’s on a good day.
I hear you bro.
Bullying is the last item on your list – same with the government I’d imagine. FG want to control everything. Be afraid.
Sad but true. While cyber bulling is the excuse that is being spouted, the real fear here is an attack on our freedom of expression and the people’s right to voice their disgust online at the Government and their policies. Remember Enda’s Christmas message? It lasted all of two hours before the comments section was closed on the Journal.ie. I could be wrong but I doubt the Journal.ie made the decision themselves to turn the comments section off. More a case of the big boss man told them to do it.
Someone can dish out misery but can’t take it themselves, me thinks.
http://www.thejournal.ie/enda-kenny-christmas-message-2013-1237105-Dec2013/#comments
To be fair that easily could have been to prevent the server from failing, effectively being denied any channel to administer information through from being flooded by requests.
right cos all this is about the “children” and protecting people and not watching what people say about the pitiful excuse for a political class clowns in this country………….its all about control folks
Exactly,
And freedom of expression will be the first to go. Pat Rabbitte – the Getting Bigger Brother.
Now would be a very good time to start reading up on VPNs unless you’d like to have some geriatrics in suits deciding on what information you can and cannot access.
what the difference between this and the Internet Safety Advisory Committee http://www.internetsafety.ie/website/ois/oisweb.nsf/page/aboutus-isac-en with overlapping members and the same topics
Yes, because it’s completely plausible that they can police the WORLD WIDE WEB.
Darren, there are nations who have limited internet traffic into their country which should not be limited in any free society.
At some point, if you limit internet freedom, the line gets blurred.
There should be no line.
The gov should get the guts to accept the good and bad of the internet as in society and deal with educating and not take the easy way out by limiting access.
Good point Tony. Remember the death of FG’s Shane McEntee being blamed on cyber-bullying? Even his own daughter said that was bull.
I hope somebody hacks their website:)
Il get on to the guys in anonymous
And this in reality is what it all boils down to “internet governance”.
This is the same government who promised fast broadband ,sure our esteemed leader was using an ancient Nokia until recently,I bet pat rabbite doesn’t know what Google actually is,out of touch these clowns.
And what are you going to do about this horrendous government tomas the tank engine? Whinge on an internet thread?
That’s exactly what I’m going to do
Could this mean an end to freedom of speech?
What about state bullying ?, banks and revenue harassment can they investigate and leglislate against that please. I just got a water meter I do not want , a bill by the government on something that I am supposed to own yet if I stop paying the banks will claim ownership.
grand so, no need for me to parent in this area then, the gubberment have my back….
Was Pat Rabbitte at the meeting?
Just wondering as there seems to be a dearth of Ministers on TV today.
I heard Brian Hayes on the radio earlier taking about flood relief but no actual image of him.
Surely he can’t be sunning himself while Ireland drowns.
So you heard Brian Hayes on the radio but didn’t get an image of him. From that you deduce that he’s in the Mediterranean sipping a cocktail? Have you taken your pills?
Pat Rabbitte missed a trick here. This advisory group should have been named the “Internet Topic Governance Advisory Group” rather than what they went with, the acronym would have been far more amusing. First item on the agenda for the new body should be to get in touch with the makers of spell checking software, his name really is Rabbitte not Rabbited. Although the second meaning of Rabbited may be pertinent in this case
You cannot look at one facet of internet usage without looking at it holistically. The road to good intentions for this particular area could result in serious implications in other areas. There are several examples which could be pointed at; Barrett Brown, Jeremey Hammond, Aaron Schwartz, Gottfrid Svartholm, Kim Dotcom and others.
If there is one area where the limits of political knowledge is in stark contrast to the good of people, this is it.
The first thing they need to do, is make it more difficult to access hardcore porn. It’s ridiculous how easy kids can access extremely disturbing imagery even with all the parental blocks.
Are you joking?
There are several tools available – make an effort – and if you don’t want to, don’t buy them a smart phone and have the home comp where you can see it.
Stop blaming the technology and start parenting.
If they removed all the porn on the internet there’d only be one site left – bringbacktheporn.com
…and thejournal.ie of course!
Jon,
My company develops MobileMinder, which is a parental control solution for smartphones and tablets running android. We have developed our own kid safety browser with the aim of providing children a safe online browsing experience.
As someone who has worked in Information Security for over 12 years, and has three children, two at primary school, I’m stunned at the apparent incompetence of this country to organise anything of any use in the area of Internet Security and Safety.
I’m part of a group (shameless plug here http://www.isc2irelandchapter.org/index.php/safe-secure ) that want to get out to the schools and educate the pupils and the parents on the important issues of online security. We want to get out to as many people as possible, and make them aware that we have a team of information security professionals who will volunteer our time to teach children.
Hoping to piggy-back on the invariable publicity that will come with the worldwide SafeInternetDay campaign on the 11th February 2014, I did some digging into what this country was doing in this space for this day, and am extremely disappointed.
I can find various government departments saying they are responsible for this very important subject area, many groups/committees like this one, and whilst some good material is out there, what we do not need is yet another quango staffed by people who apparently talk but take very little visible action.
If you are a student, teacher, parent, and want someone to actually deliver, contact us through the above link, and we’ll try to get out to you as soon as possible.
Oh, forgot to mention. It’s free!
So who else is on this board?
Is it the usual parade of cronies who’ve probably never seen a computer (see: Fidelma Healy Eames) or will there be people who know what they are talking about?
I could only see mention of one name, an academic. While college lecturers will know more then politicians or professional board-members, I’d hope to see some industry people and internet activist types there with a bit of reality and sense too.
A safety net! Really such a notion of laws to control internet content, bullying, harassment is misdirected. Controls already exist. Parents should be educated to control their kids’ exposure in the first instance.
Do not lose faith and trust in the fact that there are a lot more good people in the world than the current bully / bullies that are making your life feel worthless and like you’re living in a never-ending hell.Kids who witness bullying feel powerless and seldom intervene. However, kids who take action can have a powerful and positive effect on the situation.Never take a person’s dignity by bullying, belittling or hurting them—it’s worth more to them than it ever will to you.So keep safe don’t let your child be one of the victim bring protection with check this out at http://safekidzone.com/#!/page_home.Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
have your say