Over 50% of children allowed to use Internet chatrooms

More than half of Irish children are allowed to talk to strangers in internet chat rooms, it was revealed today.

Research carried out for the Government also found that 67% of parents check up on their children while they surf the web.

Some 70% told their youngsters not to give out personal details.

Junior minister for health and children, Brian Lenihan, expressed concern at the level of internet usage by children, given the amount of paedophiles using the web.

But he also said that Ireland’s child pornography legislation was extremely strict.

He said: “The child pornography legislation here is very strict, stricter than a lot of countries.”

Mr Lenihan was speaking at the publication of research by the Internet Advisory Board focusing on children’s use of the internet.

It surveyed about 1,000 children from across the Republic. The study found that 54% of children were allowed to talk to strangers in chatrooms and more than 80% of them claimed to never have heard of the guideline advising people not to give out their address while online.

The minister agreed more awareness was needed but said there were no immediate plans to regulate the industry in Ireland.

“I think the difficult issue which rises is the freedom of the internet which the industry argue for,” he said.

“The industry argue that the internet must be free and that by and large has been accepted by every country in the world.

“But I think there is a very great obligation on the industry itself here to work with governments throughout the world.”

He said it was essential to ensure children were not exposed to the “terrible, obscene and degrading” material that could be accessed on the web.

Paul Durrant, of the Internet Service Providers of Ireland, said illegal internet use was an international problem and that regulation in the Republic would increase cost and harm the industry.

The Internet Advisory Board is a Government-established body set up to advise ministers on the issue.