CyberSafeKids

📣 R​egistration is now open for the final session​ in our ​Online Safety Lunchtime Chat ​Series​ (before September!), ​t​ailored for parents and caregivers of children aged 10 and over.​

📲​ Let's be honest – ​raising kids in the digital age isn't easy. Helping our tweens and teens navigate the digital​ world​ can be challenging and stressful, feel overwhelming, and sometimes like you're figuring it all out on your own. That's exactly why we created this space​!

Join fellow parents and guardians along with CyberSafeKids trainers Olwyn Beresford and Ann Harte for a 45-minute conversation packed with ​real, practical ​ways to help keep your school-aged children (10+) safer online.

Whether you want to listen, ask questions, share a specific worry​ or real-life challenge around your child’s online safety, this is a warm, supportive space to talk openly about the realities of digital parenting.

Please Note: To encourage open conversation and active particpation while respecting and protecting everyone's privacy, we do not record the​se sessions.

🗓️ Parents and caregivers of children OVER 10 years
⏰ Wednesday, 6th May, 2026 | 13:00–13:45

💻To register, please click on the Zoom link ➡️
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/v1MO8inGSR2a6XOO2S3dfw

A big thank you to our sponsors Dot_IE and Blacknight for making this series possible.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Lunchtime chat for parents of children over 10. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Lunchtime chat for parents of children over 10. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

Register now - https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/screentime-and-internet-safety-parents-workshop-tickets-1987542371737?aff=oddtdtcreator

How do you feel about your childrens' internet use?
Want to feel more in control?

With this free workshop, you'll gain:
- tools to help you manage your child's screen time
- tips on how to speak to your child about the online world
- covers Youtube, gaming and social media use
+ much more

📣 Parents, guardians, and caregivers — join us for our second-to-last lunchtime chat in the series!

​👩🏾‍💻 Managing ​your child’s online ​a​ctivity can ​f​eel ​c​hallenging and​, at times, overwhelming​. That’s why we’re inviting you to take a break and j​oin two of our most experienced CyberSafeKids trainers, Olwyn Beresford and Ann Harte, ​over lunch on Zoom for a relaxed​ ​and supportive conversation about ​n​avigating your child​'s ​d​igital world.

​Grab a sandwich and tune in for 45 minutes of practical tips and strategies to help children of primary school age (up to 11 years) stay safe online.

Whether you want to just sit back and listen or you have a question or concern, this is a welcoming space for open discussion and support around digital parentin​g.

​🗓️ Wednesday, ​​22nd April 202​6​: parents of primary school-aged children up to 11 years
⏰ 13:00–13:45
✍️ Register now via Zoom ➡️ https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/FYgri3nOS4GATxIIg_Hfmw

A big thank you to our sponsors and for making this series possible.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Lunchtime chat for parents of children under 11. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Lunchtime chat for parents of children under 11. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

‼️ Ireland's new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Bill is 180 pages long.

The word "child" doesn't appear once.

Right now, children across Ireland are spending hours every day in AI-driven environments: interacting with AI chatbots, recommendation algorithms, and AI-powered games.

This Bill — as written — offers them no clear protection.

We've seen what happens when we let technology scale faster than regulation. With social media, children paid the price. We can't make the same mistake twice.

That’s why we’re submitting a response to the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment today, calling for real, enforceable protections for children, including:
1. A named regulator for child-facing AI,
2. Mandatory Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIAs) before products go live,
3. Age verification for AI chatbots,
4. A complaints process that actually works for families.

Silence on children is not a neutral position.

Ireland now has a chance to get this right — and with our EU Council Presidency beginning in July, a chance to lead on it across Europe too.

We urge the Committee to ensure that children are explicitly recognised and protected in the final legislation.

If you or your organisation want to help ensure children are protected, you can make a submission ➡️ https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/committees/making-a-submission/public-consultations/20260306-public-consultation-on-the-pre-legislative-scrutiny-of-the-general-scheme-of-the-regulation-of-the-artificial-intelligence-bill-2026/

📧 The closing date for receipt of submissions to [email protected]
is 5:30 p.m. on Monday, 13 April 2026.

Paul Donnelly TD Senator Conor Murphy Senator Linda Nelson Murray .burke.fg Niamh Smyth TD .eoghandockrell .ie

‼️ Finally, a legal argument has pierced the protective shield Big Tech has been given by the three-decade-old Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (1996), writes Alex Cooney in the Irish Examiner today.

There have been a few moments over the past 10 years of working in online safety for children that might well have been described as "to***co moments".

Some point to the Cambridge Analytica scandal coming to light in 2018, which exposed massive misuse of personal data for political gain.

Others to the 2022 coroner's inquest into the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who died by su***de in 2017, which represented the first time a coroner in the UK legally concluded that social media content contributed to a child's death — explicitly naming Pinterest and Instagram in the findings.

Or the whistleblower revelations — Frances Haugen in 2021 and Arturo Béjar in 2023 — which showed that Meta not only knew their platforms were harming children, but in some cases actively suppressed their own internal research rather than act on it.

At a minimum these were shocking moments in the digital age, yet they were not enough to shift the dial in terms of changing these companies' behaviour and practices.

But last Thursday's ruling in Los Angeles — that Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube were deliberately designed to be addictive and that their design caused serious harm to a young girl — is an historic outcome, and one that could dramatically shape the resolution of the thousands of similar lawsuits to come.

By focusing on how these platforms were deliberately designed to maximise engagement and addiction — rather than on the content they host — the plaintiffs' lawyers found a way around the shield that Big Tech has so consistently used to evade responsibility.

Read full piece ➡️ https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-41818010.html