Media watchdog Coimisiún na Meán (CnaM) has held the first meeting of its new Youth Advisory Committee, which was set up to advise it on online safety and other issues.

The committee currently comprises representatives from nine national youth groups, and nine individual young people under 25 years of age.

The regulator said that it would be consulting the group on its draft Online Safety Code and related guidance materials, which were released for public consultation on 8 December.

The draft code sets out specific measures that video-sharing platforms will be obliged to implement to keep their users, especially children, safe online.

Experiences

Niamh Hodnett (Online Safety Commissioner) said that it was important to hear the experiences of children and young people online, and their view of what the regulator was proposing.

“It is vital that we hear directly from digital natives to ensure that the measures we put in place under our first Online Safety Code actually help to create a safer online environment for children and young people,” she added.

The organisations that have been invited to the inaugural committee are:

• BeLong To,
• Children’s Rights Alliance,
• CyberSafeKids,
• Irish Traveller Movement,
• ISPCC,
• National Parents Council,
• National Youth Council of Ireland,
• Spunout, and
• Webwise.

Hodnett said, however, that CnaM was open to hearing from other organisations that would be interested in joining the committee, which will meet again in January.