Coimisiún na Meán’s new media campaign focuses on the importance of reporting harmful and illegal content to the online platforms. The national campaign will run until March. Aimed at raising awareness of individual rights under online safety legislation, the multi-channel campaign seeks to reach young people, parents and those who work with young people. The goal is to empower the public with knowledge of their rights and how to exercise them – in particular, by reporting to platforms. The campaign includes a series of short videos, encouraging the public to report harmful material they might encounter online, including cyberbullying and the promotion of eating disorders, self-harm and suicide, as well as dangerous challenges.
For young people, the message is ‘If it’s harmful in real life, it’s harmful online. Report harmful content to the platform where you see it’. Three 15-second videos are running on social media, with each video focusing on a different online harm – you can watch them here.
For parents of young people, the message is ‘Harmful content is never acceptable. Report it to the platform where you see it’. The 30-second video, in both English and Irish, is running on social media, video on demand and in cinemas and an ISL version is available on the Coimisiún na Meán website.
To support the media campaign, Coimisiún na Meán is offering a suite of resources on its website that provide user-friendly, step-by-step guidance on how to report harmful and illegal content on some of the most popular platforms.
The How to Report guides are accompanied by easy-to-follow videos going through the reporting journey and outlining users’ rights if they are unhappy about a platform’s decision on whether or not to remove the content.
An overview video that explains the difference between reporting illegal and harmful content to platforms is also provided. To view the guides and for further information on children’s rights online, visit the Coimisiún na Meán website here.
