Sandra Overend, Ulster Unionist MLA for Mid-Ulster, has reiterated her calls for a cross-departmental e-strategy headed up by OFMDFM and a public campaign to highlight the online dangers which our young people face. All parties supported a call for a cross-departmental approach in developing an e-strategy last February. 

Mrs Overend, who is Ulster Unionist Spokesperson for children and young people said: 

“The responsibility to protect and educate our young people to online dangers spreads across many departments within the Northern Ireland Assembly and that is why all parties supported the call for a cross-departmental approach in developing an e-strategy last February. This follows my request to the Junior Ministers in a meeting in November 2012 to carry out a gapping exercise to which they agreed. 

“However, I am most disappointed that, while online technology changes and develops in a flash, the movement by the Department of the First and Deputy First Ministers has been so slow that the gapping exercise has yet to be completed and released, never mind moved on to develop a cross-departmental e-strategy to reflect its findings. 

“I will be meeting the Junior Ministers today following my request which they received during the summer, and will be very firmly emphasising the point that our young people deserve and demand better." 

"The statistics in the recently published NSPCC Report are alarming. As a mother of three, I know and understand the peer pressure for our young people to log on to the various social media websites, so I am not surprised that around half of the UK's 11 and twelve year olds have a profile on some of these sites, which have a minimum age of 13. I agree that many are not ready, or have the ability to deal with some of the behaviour that goes on within them. 

“Technology and internet activity develop very quickly and it is our young people who are the most up to date in terms of being technically savvy. It is our responsibility to ensure that the dangers are highlighted and that our young people understand where the dangers lie and are equipped with the ability to report problems easily. 

“News that Google and Microsoft have agreed measure to make it more difficult to find child abuse images online is a welcome move, but I understand that this does not cover all the concerns, and that images remain online, if only better hidden in a darker place.”