As part of Maynooth University’s Social Justice Week, the School of Law and Criminology are hosting a free, interactive workshop that will consider the Online Safety Code being prepared by Coimisiún na Meán from a children’s rights perspective. The workshop is aimed at policy advocates, academics, students, and anyone else with an interest in this topic. We will consider strategies for future advocacy, and share information and good practice for work on this important issue. There will be an opportunity for networking afterwards. A full abstract is provided below.
Workshop leads:
- Dr Ollie Bartlett, Assistant Professor of Law, Maynooth School of Law and Criminology
- Kathryn Reilly, Policy and Legislative Affairs Manager, Irish Heart Foundation
- Noeline Blackwell, Online Safety Co-ordinator, Children's Rights Alliance
- Dr Sheila Gilheany, CEO, Alcohol Action Ireland
Details:
- Wednesday 6th March, 15:00-16:30
- Maynooth University Campus, TSI Building, Seminar Room 030
- Free to attend, tea and coffee provided, all welcome.
- RSVP and further details: ollie.bartlett@mu.ie
- Travel to Maynooth is easiest by train from Dublin Connolly/Pearse. The 115 bus also runs to Maynooth from Connolly Station. Limited pay parking is available on campus and in Maynooth town.
Full Abstract:
This interactive workshop will invite participants to consider how the safety and health of children should be protected when they participate in the online community. The Online Media and Safety Regulation Act 2022 created a new media regulator for Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán, which has responsibility for adopting legally binding codes to regulate online platforms and activity for the protection of citizens. The proposed Online Safety Code for Video Sharing Platform Services has been criticised for not being sufficiently inclusive of the range of harms that children are exposed to and endangered by when they go online. In particular, commercial communications for alcohol, unhealthy food, and breast milk substitutes receive weak treatment despite the proven role of this content in encourage harmful behaviours in children. There is concern among children’s rights advocates that children may be or feel excluded from safe participation in the online world if they cannot be afforded crucial protections that will allow them to participate in ways that promote their healthy development. This interactive workshop will encourage participants to engage on this subject to identify the ways in which children might be at risk when they go online, and how these risks will impact upon children’s ability to belong safely to the online community. Participants will then seek to understand how these impacts can violate children’s fundamental rights, and how Coimisiún na Meán could respond in a socially just way to shape an online space that welcomes children, protects them from harm, and plays a positive role in the healthy development that they are entitled to.