Our world is in the grip of a digital revolution which has transformed practically every aspect of our lives, from how we bank and watch TV to the way we access music and read newspapers. The Irish News has the strongest performing print circulation in the UK but a growing number of readers access our journalism through our website and app.
Platforms such as Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat didn’t exist until relatively recently but have become places where people meet and mingle, strike up friendships and share ideas.
It should be emphasised that for most people, these are positive developments. But it is also a depressing truism that anywhere people gather, whether in person or virtually, those with malign intent who want to hurt, cheat, abuse and prey will also seek victims.
If these environments are tricky for adults to navigate, they can pose particular risks for children and young people.
This has been distressingly highlighted in the so-called catfishing case involving Newry man Alexander McCartney, who has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of a 12-year-old girl who he was blackmailing.
Catfishing involves using a fake online identity to target other online users which then leads to online sexual abuse, exploitation and blackmail.
The uncomfortable reality is that smartphones’ ubiquity means that bullies and predators can target children in their own homes, in what ought to be their safe spaces
McCartney, who is now 26 and will be sentenced later, would use fake identities to befriend young girls and persuade them to send images, at which point he would threaten them to do what he asked “or I will show your nudes for all the world to see”. Snapchat was his preferred app.
Everything about the case will be deeply alarming to parents. At a more everyday level there are legitimate concerns about ‘sexting’ and other forms of cyber bullying. And whatever social media’s benefits, it can have a pernicious effect on self-esteem and resilience, especially for girls.
The challenge facing parents, and society and legislators more broadly, is how to balance the positives of the online world and social media against the dangers lurking in the digital shadows. The uncomfortable reality is that smartphones’ ubiquity means that bullies and predators can target children in their own homes, in what ought to be their safe spaces.
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Continued education for parents and children alike, as well as vigilance, is needed. There has been talk about not allowing children to have their own smartphone until they are 16 and it is clear that TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and others cannot continue to abdicate responsibility for what appears on their platforms.
It is time that we had an honest conversation - online and ‘in real life’ - about how to keep our children safe and build their resilience in a world that didn’t exist when their parents were born.
