A warning to anyone, as if it was needed, about the dangers that exist on the Internet.
Friday night’s Late Late Show featured a panel discussion about the dangers facing children using social media apps in Ireland, a discussion that took place in the wake of a 26-year-old man being sentenced to nine and a half years in prison in a truly disturbing case of child exploitation.
As part of the segment on the show, Ryan Tubridy revealed that a member of the Late Late Show team had set up an account on the instant messaging app Kik, masquerading as a 13-year-old girl named ‘Aoife’, in an effort to highlight what children can be subjected to online.
Before screenshots of some of the messages received by ‘Aoife’ were displayed, Tubridy warned that viewers of a delicate disposition might want to avert their eyes and that what was displayed was “the mild end” of what they bore witness to over the past week.
Tubridy also revealed that ‘Aoife’ received her first inappropriate message just eight minutes after creating the account in a public group set up to discuss pop music.
https://twitter.com/RTELateLateShow/status/957015779072819200
The segment also featured a panel discussion featuring child psychologist David Coleman, CyberSafeIreland’s Cliona Curley and Irish Daily Mail editor Sebastian Hamilton, while Tubridy also spoke to a number of teenage girls in the audience about access to smartphones and their online habits.
It also featured a reference to resources parents, teachers and schools can use to promote safer online habits, such as
Webwise and
CyberSafeIreland.
https://twitter.com/Webwise_Ireland/status/957019131093704705
https://twitter.com/Webwise_Ireland/status/957022112832786432
You can catch up on Friday night’s episode of the Late Late Show on the
RTÉ Player.
