Ireland

[IE] Conference on Child Safety and New Media

IRIS 2004-10:1/28

Candelaria van Strien-Reney

Faculty of Law, National University of Ireland, Galway

The Internet Advisory Board ["the Board"] has published the results of research on children and the use of new media, presented by the Board at its annual conference on 18 October 2004. The Board was set up on the recommendation of a government report in 1998 on "Illegal and Harmful Use of the Internet" (see IRIS 2000-3: 28). Its task is to facilitate the self-regulation of the Internet in Ireland and to monitor developments.

The latest research carried out among parents and children to ascertain patterns regarding access and use of new technological media by children shows that although children have access to a growing number of new media, parents still associate risks and other issues with access to Internet by computer. Despite the availability of access to Internet by mobile phone, only 13% of parents consider a mobile phone to be a high risk, compared with 47% for Internet-accessible computer.

There has been a significant rise in both the availability and number of technologies used by children, such as mobile phones, video recorders, cable TV and DVD, but surprisingly, weekly access to the Internet by children has dropped more than 20% since 2001.

Almost half the parents surveyed saw the Internet as a potential source of access to pornography and unsuitable material, compared with 28% for digital television.

A high percentage of children said that there was considerable supervision and monitoring of their Internet use by their parents, as well as discussion regarding the potential dangers associated with the Internet.