LETTER: Does TD not trust parents?

SIR – A Fine Gael TD, Jim Daly, is trying to force through legislation, which could criminalise parents who buy mobile phones for their children who are under 14. Where does the nanny State end and the grandpa version take over?

Step up there, the bould Jim, who it appears, has little enough to bother him with regard to the welfare of our children and grandchildren than when we decide to buy them a mobile – smart or otherwise. 

Daly says that children as young as seven and eight could (would?) access pornography if they get to use a mobile phone at this young age. 

How does he know? How could little ones at this age be allowed to know about such things in the first place, when they are only interested in Peppa Pig and Spider-Man and the Tooth Fairy? 

Are they taught such bad stuff in school if the parents are not doing so? Of course not, either in school or at home. 

Jim is in the realm of remote fantasy, but it probably sounds good to himself.

Does this TD not trust parents to supervise everything their tiny kids are doing without his crackpot input into the private lives of families; with him having to sow unfounded doubt and guilt where it has no cause to lay?

This is about all the Dáil is good for – introducing nonsense propositions which do nothing to enhance and improve the lives of citizens, except to further scrutinise innocent people who are put on notice by folk like Jim and his novelty politics.

Try to bring in policies which will really benefit children and families, Mr Daly, and desist from the tried and failed century-old policies of Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil-Sinn Féin and Labour; when interference in the family lives of the population, and proposals of unbaked notions and unwarranted control over us were expected and endured in the past.

And we, who grew up in the times when politicians and governments were in thrall to the Catholic Church, and who felt they were doing God’s work in the Oireachtas, know exactly the type of negative control such people would like to wield in this little country, which struggles to be free of the influences of false prophets in Church and State.

How dare you imply parents are lax in the supervision of their children, Mr Daly. I do not know of even one family who allow their seven and eight-year-olds access to the dark side of anything to do with the internet. Do you, sir?

Stop trying to be holier than the Pope by trying to make parents afraid of you.

Robert Sullivan,

Bantry.