The mother of a child who was cyber-bullied has said a new plan forcing schools to record incidents of bullying is 'already too late'.
The Department of Education will soon publish rules forcing schools to record incidents of bullying, according to The Irish Times.
Charities are welcoming a data-driven approach and are calling for it to be used to build policy.
Sinéad, who said her son suffered 'horrific' bullying and threats, told The Hard Shoulder she believes another report is not what is needed.
"It's a year and a half since the incident happened, and as harrowing and horrendous as it was I'm glad to say that it was really well dealt with because we had the school onboard," she said.
"I'm glad to hear that schools are still being put at the centre of this and being asked to contribute.
"But my gut response to anything that comes out as a strategy and database, and something to identify future trends just makes me anything from sad to really angry and frustrated.
"It's already too late for this strategy and this collection of data; what's needed is very, very affirmative action.
"I don't want to hear more platitudes from Government departments making promises around investing in this area once they have the information to hand."
'Challenge the platform providers'
Sinéad said the approach is "absolute nonsense" without challenging the social media companies.
"I want to know what it is they are going to do, and at what stage are they going to stop putting this really serious, escalating issue on to schools, teachers, parents and children," she said.
"Challenge the platform providers; challenge the Meta, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat.
"When are those people going to be brought into a room and held to account?
"The whole system is broken.
"Yet the Government seems to think that we the parents will be either distracted by, or settle for, another piece of long-term action without going to the root of the cause.
"Identifying future trends is good and important... but for parents like me and thousands of others are dealing with the fact that their children are able to access grossly inappropriate and seriously damaging content pretty much 24/7.
"You have the likes of Meta - whose policies and practices are well able to silence and censor the voices of Palestine and Palestinian journalists - but they're not able to stop video footage of children being raped being presented on other children's phones, that they then stand around and show each other in schoolyards, in Ireland in 2024," she added.
A 2021 report by the Oireachtas Education Committee found bullying was "widespread" in rural and urban schools.
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Anyone affected by issues raised in this article can contact the Samaritans on 116-123 or email jo@samaritans.ie
