SIIYAP Meeting February 2010

The Safer Internet Ireland Youth Advisory Panel met for the first time on September 30th 2009. On Tuesday 9th February 2010, The Minister for Education and Science, Batt O’Keeffe, T.D., officially launched the Safer Internet Ireland Youth Advisory Panel (SIIYAP) marking Safer Internet Day in Ireland.

At the first meeting, the participants were asked to review the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to highlight those rights which are most relevant to young people and their use of the internet.  Working in small groups again, the participants were asked to review the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to highlight those rights which are most relevant to young people and their use of the internet.

The second meeting of the Safer Internet Ireland Youth Advisory Panel took place on February 9th 2010 to coincide with European Internet Safety Day.  The meeting was held again in the Clock Tower in the Department of Education Offices in Marlborough St in Dublin. Seventeen members of the SIIYAP attended the meeting.  Half of these had also attended the first meeting and the remainder were new to the panel.
 
The meeting was designed to allow for the panel members to continue some of the work which they had commenced at the last meeting in September ’09 and also for the panel members to participate in a launch event for the Panel on Safer Internet Day.  The Minister for Education, Mr Batt O’Keeffe launched the panel in the afternoon session.  The theme for Safer Internet Day 2010 was ‘Think Before You Post’, raising issues of privacy in internet use.

The panel discussed the issue of privacy in the context of Article 16 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which states that children have a right to privacy.  The law should protect them from attacks against their way of life, their good name, their families and their homes.

In general discussion afterwards, the panel members felt that the biggest factor in ensuring safety for children was that there needs to be education for parents and children and that there would also be education programmes in the primary school. Participants felt that this would be more effective than bringing in stricter regulations for the providers.
Children and young people need to be made aware of what privacy really means on the internet. They should be educated to understand the importance of keeping some information private and the consequences of putting too much information on the internet.  

One of the issues which was raised by the young people was that children would listen to advice from teenagers as ‘mentors’ rather than their parents.  This gave rise to a discussion around the possibility of teenagers giving talks/sessions in primary schools around the issue of the internet and ensuring privacy and safety.  In the afternoon, the Minister for Education formally launched the SIIYAP.  Aidan Power from RTE hosted the session and Jerome Morrissey from the NCTE spoke to introduce the session.  

Panel members described the work which they had done in the morning session on privacy and the internet.  Aidan Power asked the panel about some of the suggestions which they had for making the internet a safer activity for young people.  Members of the audience also asked panel members their opinions on a range of issues including how they might advise younger children on using the internet and what type of education programmes could be run in schools for both parents and young people.