Tag Archives: cyber bullying

NEGATIVE online commentary about Shannon and Clare County Council’s role in running it was criticised this week, with several members of the Shannon MD saying it’s time to point out some of the positive things about Clare’s second largest town. Independent Councillor Gerry Flynn called out those he referred to as “keyboard warriors”, who always criticise the town and elected representatives. “They hide beyond their keyboards and they’re always negative, negative, negative.” He said it’s time that the Council “spoke up about all that is good about Shannon”. A motion from Councillor Flynn asked that the Council engage a public relations specialist to publicise “the many positives that exist in Shannon Town as a place to live, bring up a family and avail of the many opportunities that exist for employment, education, social interests and also an expansive landscape to enjoy”. Councillor Flynn says the local authority has the web address shannon.ie available to it, and this could be used …

Senator Lorraine Higgins has written to the Oireachtas committee on communications to request that representatives from facebook and Twitter be called before it Senator Higgins has sought their attendance at the committee in order to answer questions about their practices in light of the outcome of a recent survey by Vodafone, which found that one in every four children in Ireland have been cyber bullied, with 51% believing the issue to be bigger than drug abuse amongst young people and 45% feeling totally helpless when it happened to them. Senator Higgins said, “This is an issue that I not only have been talking about but have introduced legislation on to curb abuse, threat as and cyberbullying online. While legislation is only one way to deal with the issue there are others like education and awareness within schools. However, that is not to say that social media companies should get off scot free when it comes to legal and moral responsibility …

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr James Reilly has launched two new resources to help support young people affected by bullying. Tackle Bullying (www.tacklebullying.ie), an online resource for young people affected by bullying, was developed at the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre (ABC) at Dublin City University and funded by National Lottery Funds. The centtre was established in 1996 by Professor Mona O’Moore and is led by Dr James O’Higgins Norman. It is the first forum of its kind and encourages teenagers to share their experiences with their peers or offer support to others. While the forum will encourage peer-to-peer conversation, all posts will be monitored by professionals and an option to contact one of the moderators directly will be available to those feeling very unhappy or have a serious issue they’d like to discuss. The website will also contain some useful information on the subject such as tips on staying cyber-safe and newspaper articles which might be …

THE establishment of an EU-wide Anti-Bullying Day is on MEP Sean Kelly’s Christmas wish list for the New Year. “The introduction of an EU Anti-Bullying Day would generate huge awareness-raising opportunities around the issue of bullying, and particularly that of young people in school or online right across Europe on an annual basis,” the Ireland South MEP said. The Fine Gael MEP who has led a national and European campaign against cyber bullying, and intends to hold further anti-cyber bullying forums in 2015, says the effects of bullying on young people are severe: “Research shows 1,700 young Europeans are at risk of death by suicide every year due to bullying and cyber-bullying. “These are preventable deaths and the EU has a responsibility to protect young people from the scourge of bullying in any form it takes – online, physical or emotional battering,” Mr Kelly, a former teacher,continued. “I want to see an anti-bullying campaign involving key stakeholders rolled out under …

THE title of  MEP of the Year for the Digital Agenda has been awarded to Sean Kelly. The awards, presented in Brussels on Tuesday night, recognise the work of MEPs in a series of categories and winners are decided on a vote by their peers. “I am honoured to win this award.  I wish to dedicate it to the excellent work done by Coder Dojo and all of the work of the European Parliament in furthering the digital agenda. Our present and our future is digital.  We need to foster an environment in the EU where the digital economy can generate jobs and growth and the European Parliament has a key role to play in this,” said Mr Kelly. Mr Kelly spoke of how cyber-bullying is a worrying trend associated with so much of our lives moving online. “I have held a series of forums across Ireland and in the European Parliament to gather together young people, teachers, community leaders and …