Irish Examiner view: Parents should take heed of stark smartphone warning 

Giving young children smartphones is a mistake, and needs to be identified as such

Stating that parents are abdicating their responsibilities by giving young children smartphones may discomfit some, but it is difficult to contradict. File picture

Many of us adopt a passive stance towards this digital age, pointing to the onward march of technology as a relentless force which cannot be gainsaid. What can be done in the face of vast tech companies which appear to have taken over the world, particularly when our children are growing up as digital natives?

This position was undercut by recent comments at a conference in Cork on the use of technology in human trafficking.

Chief executive of the Irish Internet Hotline Mick Moran, a former garda who has also worked with Interpol on child exploitation cases, said giving young children smartphones was “an abdication of responsibility by parents” that sees youngsters “being sacrificed on the altar of profiteering and consumerism”, a refreshingly frank appraisal of the situation.

Regarding human trafficking, the subject of the conference, Mr Moran asked a very obvious question — “How do you think the offenders are contacting these kids?” — before outlining the reality lurking behind young children using smartphones to get online, describing it as selling “ ...our autonomy, especially our digital autonomy, to these companies, whose only interest is profit”.

The record of many social media companies bears this out. It is now a routine occurrence to see such companies fined millions of euro for mishandling children’s data. Four years ago the Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined Meta Platforms Ireland Limited €405m after investigating its processing of personal data relating to child users, and there are plenty of other examples.

Mr Moran’s criticism of parents is not something we hear as often, however. Stating that parents are abdicating their responsibilities by giving young children smartphones may discomfit some, but it is difficult to contradict. Doing so changes a child’s path to development, as Mr Moran stated, who added: “I can 100% assure you that you are not changing it for the good.”

This candour is welcome. Parenting small children can be challenging, but giving such children smartphones is a mistake and needs to be identified as such.

An emblem of the Celtic Tiger era

There was an eerie symmetry to a couple of recent events which probably reminded many readers of a fraught period in our past.

The National Asset Management Agency, Nama, was wound up last Friday, having fulfilled its mandate of managing distressed property loans arising out of the financial crash. Within 48 hours, Michael Fingleton, one of the key players in that financial crash, had passed away.

One reading of Fingleton’s career suggests a financial wizard, a mastermind with the golden touch. In the early 1970s, he took over a tiny lender with one branch and turned it into a financial powerhouse with a balance sheet of €16bn.

Closer examination reveals a cautionary tale. In the final years of the Celtic Tiger property boom, Mr Fingleton oversaw a rise in Irish Nationwide’s loan book which more than doubled development and commercial loans. After the crash, when those loans were eventually transferred to Nama, the agency judged that only about 16% of an €8.7bn book was likely to be repaid: the ultimate cost to the taxpayer was €5.4bn. Irish Nationwide, along with Anglo-Irish Bank, became a byword for financial irresponsibility.

It has to be acknowledged that Mr Fingleton cultivated the media assiduously, with many journalists receiving Irish Nationwide loans and mortgages at a time when mortgages were strictly controlled, but his reputation did not prevent the State pursuing him through the courts, alleging he had negligently mismanaged Irish Nationwide through “speculative, risky” lending. When the case reached the High Court last October, he was too ill to attend.

Mr Fingleton will always be associated with the financial crash, and with the boom years which preceded it. For those seeking a reminder of the attitudes of those times, he was paid a bonus of €1m just weeks after the Government introduced a €440bn guarantee to protect the entire Irish banking system.

We would do well to avoid a repeat of that mindset.

The wait goes on

Last week nine significant infrastructure projects were announced, having been designated as being of critical national importance under new legislation, the Critical Infrastructure Act.

The Act gives such projects priority for faster processing and decision-making.

The need for such legislation was borne out by two unconnected stories this week.

First, the west Clare town of Kilkee is fighting to prevent a water treatment plant being built near its cliff walk. Locals have raised almost €100,000 to launch a judicial review of An Coimisiún Pleanála’s decision to grant planning permission for the plant.

Elsewhere, plans are under way to build a new town — with 18,500 homes — at Dunsink in north Dublin, but the scheme is being strongly opposed by locals. Almost 400 objections to the proposal have already been submitted to Fingal County Council.

People are entitled to comment on or object to major projects being built near them. Objections in Kilkee appear to be centred on the specific location of the plant, near a tourist attraction, while in Dunsink, concerns have been expressed about the health risks associated with building near an old landfill.

Those are reasonable points to make about new developments, but they also illustrate the sheer difficulty of getting anything built in Ireland. Our water infrastructure is in dire need of improvement and our need for new homes was never keener, yet we will no doubt have a long wait before these projects are completed.

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