Internet Safety Legislation

There is no specific legislation governing Internet safety at school level. Complicating this issue is the fact that the Internet functions in a global context whereas the law operates in a localised one. There are, however, a number of legislations that have relevance to Internet safety. They are briefly described as follows:

Data Protection Act 1988
This act was passed in order to deal with privacy issues arising from the increasing amount of information kept on computer about individuals.

Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2003
This amendment extends the data protection rules to manually held records and also makes improvements to the public’s right to access data.

Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998
This act legislates against anyone who knowingly produces, prints, publishes, distributes, exports, imports, shows, possesses or sells child pornography.

Interception Act 1993
(The Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Messages Regulation Act 1993). This act stipulates that telecommunication messages can be intercepted for the purpose of an investigation of a serious offence. Authorisations are subject to certain conditions. 

Video Recordings Act 1989
This act prohibits the distribution of videos which contain obscene or indecent material which may lead to the depravation or corruption of the viewer. It would apply where someone in the State supplied this kind of video over the Internet.