ORGANISED CRIME GANGS are increasingly recruiting children via online gaming platforms, An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na has said.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a roundtable on online safety,\u00a0An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na\u2019s communications director Andrew McLindon said that young people \u2013 especially those who are vulnerable \u2013 are being radicalised into a life of crime or terrorism through online gaming platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McLindon made the comments during a session of the Kennedy summer school, an annual history and culture festival in New Ross, Co Wexford, named after late US president John F. Kennedy.<\/p>\n
This growing trend, which has largely been seen in Northern Europe, sees organised crime gangs (OCGs) recruiting young, vulnerable people and making the life of an OCG seem \u201cglamorous\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen what they do is they basically say to them: \u2018We will give you $300. We will provide you with a gun. We want you to travel to another country.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the person we want you to shoot. We want you to shoot them, and we want you to video it.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLindon said that this trend is \u201chugely concerning\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also spoke of another abusive tactic, where \u201cnihilistic\u201d people and groups target individuals through online gaming platforms and influence them to self-harm and video themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are people who don\u2019t care about anybody else, don\u2019t care about the individual.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is all done, unfortunately \u2013 and it really is horrific \u2013 as a competition. These nihilistic people are competing with each other to see how much harm they can inflict or get self-inflicted on a young child.\u201d<\/p>\n
McLindon said that online gaming platforms need to be \u201cenforced\u201d, with more focus in general on these platforms, which tend to get less attention than traditional social media.<\/p>\n
What could also help, he said, is if online platforms were treated and legislated for as publishers, which would make platforms \u201cchange their behaviour\u201d and also make it easier for garda\u00ed to investigate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the same way that publishers are held liable for the content they put out, social media companies could be held liable for the content on their platforms. This would be instead of the current system, whereby the platform is only held liable once someone flags harmful content to them or a regulator.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need an organisation to have breached a piece of legislation. So, if there was\u2026 if that was regulated, that would make it easier to investigate, certainly,\u201d McLindon said.<\/p>\n
The roundtable discussion,\u00a0titled \u2018Children, Clicks and Consequences: Online Safety in a Digital Age\u2019, was held ahead of children returning to school in September.<\/p>\n
The issue is becoming increasingly urgent as children gain access to smartphones and other devices at younger ages. Recent research by NGO CyberSafeKids has found that 39% of children aged 8 to 12 own their own smartphone, rising to 66% by the age of 12.<\/p>\n
The research also found that 26% of primary school children and 36% of secondary school children had experienced online content or unsolicited contact that bothered them, including exposure to violence, sexual material, threats, scams and dangerous ideas.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the roundtable, Dr Niall Muldoon, Ombudsman for Children, said that what is key is incorporating children\u2019s rights into digital policy. This, he said, would involve\u00a0incorporating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into legislation.<\/p>\n
This would mean that anyone involved in online safety would need to have a child\u2019s rights impact assessment.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of spending energy keeping us offline and away from social media you should spend your energy keeping social media away from us,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A social media ban was also discussed, with Dr Gillian Kennedy, board member at NGO Transparency International, describing it as very \u201creactionary\u201d.<\/p>\n
She drew the analogy with someone drowning, saying that while drowning is dangerous, \u201cwould you ban a child from doing swimming lessons? No, is the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth is the kids are online, they\u2019re going to be online continuously, even if you ban social media.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if you ban phone usage, their peers are going to have phones. So it\u2019s about educating them.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you have been affected by any of the issues mentioned in this article, you can reach out for support through the following helplines. These organisations also put people in touch with long-term supports:\n<\/p>\n