Meeting of the Parliament 14 November 2017
Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am also grateful to the cabinet secretary for prior sight of his statement.
This is an extremely important issue and one that challenges just about everybody who works with young people in our communities. There is no doubting that the cabinet secretary has covered a wide range of approaches that are being taken at the moment. I am particularly glad to welcome the pulling together of all those things with an expert group to look at how we go forward and how we ensure that we are doing the right things—the things that will make a difference to the young people who are affected by this issue.
Establishing the expert group is the right way to go. I particularly welcome the appointment of Catherine Dyer to chair it, which she is very appropriately qualified to do. I really look forward to the group’s findings and what it has to tell us.
I have two small questions regarding the group. First, the cabinet secretary mentioned the involvement of young people, which is absolutely critical, but there was no mention of families. Will he ensure that families are also involved in a meaningful way? Obviously families have a lot to contribute, and it is very important that we hear how they cope with their young people and how they can get involved in preventing the sort of experiences that their young people might encounter.
Secondly, will the expert group engage with online service providers—particularly social media—to ensure that we have a robust approach to learning in an online digital world?