Mother of suicide victim calls for laws to fight cyberbullying
The mother of a young woman who died by suicide because she was being bullied online is calling for a change in legislation.
Jackie Fox's daughter Nicole took her own life in January after she was targeted on social media for years.
There are currently no laws that specifically address cyberbullying.
Jackie explained when she went to the Gardaí over the harassment, there was nothing they could do.
She said: "I've never been through this before so I didn't know there wasn't a law, I didn't know it wasn't an offence to attack people online.
"When the guards came and told me, I was just shocked, they said it was a grey area and there was nothing they can do about it until there was a law brought in."
Social media companies should be taxed to fund help for young victims of online bullying, according to People Before Profit.
The party is joining with parents whose children have been subjected to online harassment and calling for tougher enforcement of anti-bullying strategies on the internet.
People Before Profit TD, Gino Kenny, believes a tax on social media companies could fund anti-bullying programmes in schools around the country;
He said: "What we're calling for is social media companies to be taxed like a revenue-raising measure and that could be a tax on any revenue they raise in this country.
"A small tiny percentage of that could go towards anti-bullying education in schools."
According to People Before Profit, mental health services are not able to adequately help young victims of cyberbullying.
Mr Kenny said: "Young people are being failed and I think anybody will tell you that. Mental health services, getting access to them, particularly for young people is particularly hard because the mental health crisis is 24/7.
"We don't have that service in Ireland so until that is corrected I think young people will fall through the cracks."
