Student added to panel after newspaper letter

A fourth-year student from a second-level school in Co Cork has been appointed to a national advisory panel looking at safeguards to protect against cyberbullying after she wrote a letter on the subject to the Irish Examiner.

Áine Curtin, a pupil at Boherbue Comprehensive School, was invited to take part in the Safer Internet Ireland Youth Advisory Panel meetings in Dublin. She has already participated in one of its meetings with nine other youth panel members.

In her Oct 23 letter, which was prompted by the suicide in late September of Leitrim cyberbullying victim Ciara Pugsley, Áine expressed her “disappointment” with the Government response to the issue and wanted to alert ministers to the lack of guidelines for the prevention of cyberbullying.