Published: Thu, 25 July 2013
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Ireland South MEP Sean Kelly will host a Cyber-Bullying Forum in Limerick on September 27th, in order to raise awareness and inspire action to prevent online bullying.
“Cyber-bullying, or Bullying by social media, is a problem of epidemic proportions affecting mostly young people. It is a very serious challenge for parents, teachers, mental health and youth/community workers. It has fuelled a national and Europe-wide debate on how to best to tackle the issue,” Sean Kelly said today, in announcing the event to be held in Limerick.
“In very real and shocking terms, over 1,700 young Europeans are at risk of death by suicide this year due to bullying and cyber-bullying according to research by a leading charity, Beat Bullying UK. Unfortunately, many tragic deaths of young people have already been linked to cyber-bullying in Ireland already.”
The Fine Gael MEP, and former school teacher, says educating people of all ages on the subject is vital. The Limerick Forum will be the second of its kind hosted by Mr Kelly who also organised a Cyber-Bullying Forum in Cork (January 2013).
Mr Kelly is campaigning for the introduction of an EU and national level anti-bullying campaign involving key stakeholders in education, government and commercial and youth sectors in order to eradicate bullying once and for all.
“I am glad to say there is cross-party and multi-stakeholder agreement in Europe that we, as a society, need to do all we can to eradicate bullying. We need to change the behaviour, the attitude and the belief systems that allow bullying to persist in our schools, in our communities and in workplaces in some cases.
“We cannot allow any more young people to be tortured and negatively impacted in this way anymore and we certainly do not want any more lives lost tragically because of it. Schools should be supported in rolling out anti-bullying programmes.
“I am also strongly advocating for the establishment of an EU Anti-Bullying Day to raise awareness of the issue,” Mr Kelly added.
Please see my recent Cyber-Bullying Newsletter here.
Event Details
The Cyber-Bullying Forum, organised and hosted by Sean Kelly MEP, takes place in Kilmurry Lodge Hotel, Limerick City on Friday, 27th September 09:30 – 12:00.
The forum is targeted at parents, school principals/teachers, youth groups, and community liaisons in particular, and all those interested in this issue.
View Kilmurry Lodge Hotel in a larger map
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Agenda
09:30
Opening Address
Cllr John Sheahan
Cathaoirleach, Limerick County Council
09:40
Overview of Cyber-bullying at EU level & EU Data Protection Reform
Seán Kelly MEP
10:00
BeatBullying Ireland: a tested and proven model of anti bullying service provision
Niall Cowley, International Director, The Beat Bullying Group
10:25
Educate and Alert: Combatting Cyber-Bullying
Gerard Flynn & Ciarán Connolly, Co-Founders, XRayData.com
10:50
Break –Tea & Coffee
11:05
We can only end Cyber-Bullying by ending Bullying
Seán Fallon, Anti-Bullying Campaign
11:30
Safety at Facebook
Corman Keenan, Head, User Operations Team, Facebook
12:00
Questions and Answers Session
12:30
Conclusion
Seán Kelly MEP
Speaker Profiles
Niall Cowely
Niall Cowley, International Director of The BB Group, the charity that runs BeatBullying, has been working in the anti bullying sector since 2006. With over 13 years experience in communications and public affairs, consulting for the Department for Education in the UK and the European Commission, Niall is now leading on The BB Group’s international strategy; the deployment of services internationally and expansion into new countries and territories.
Gerard Flynn MBE
Qualified as a teacher in 1971 and worked in a variety of schools in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Moved to Hong Kong as a senior teacher in 1984. Was appointed to first Headship in 1987 in Brunei. Moved to Gibraltar in 1992. Appointed to MBIS in 1997 and retired in December 2012.
Qualifications:Teaching Certificate and BPhil in Educational Studies (University of Newcastle)
Independent Schools’ Inspectorate(ISI) Team Inspector
Awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2010 for services to Education and Charities in Egypt
Registered Schools’ Mentor. Council for British International Schools (COBIS) 2012.
Ciaran Connolly
A student of St. Macartan’s College Monaghan, gained a Degree in Marketing and Business from University of Ulster. Worked in Nortel Networks, Lidl, Tesco’s before moving to the Middle East for 11 years and working in operations for Next and H&M. Became involved in online marketing, creating numerous websites and advising local business on retail strategies online. Founder of ProfileTree and Co-Founder of XRayData and NoBullying.com.
Seán Fallon
Seán Fallon, M.A., H. Dip. Ed., H. Dip. Ed. Man.
Seán was a secondary teacher for 33 years. With and colleague Mary Kent developed an anti-bullying programme for their students from 2003. This programme had a very positive impact and has evolved into what is now the Anti-Bullying Campaign programme. Following the tragic death by suicide of Leanne Wolfe in 2007 after years of bullying including cyberbullying, Seán and Mary made the Anti-Bullying Campaign programme available free of charge to all other secondary schools through a website – www.antibullyingcampaign.ie. The focus of the Anti-Bullying Campaign is empowerment. Students are empowered to recognise, reject and report bullying, including cyberbullying to teachers. Teachers are empowered to bring the bullying to an end to give a “win-win” outcome.
Cormac Keenan
Cormac is a manager on the Facebook User Operations based in Dublin. The User Operations team develops scaled solutions to user issues, protects users by decreasing negative engagement on the site, and delivers qualitative and quantitative insight into user behavior. They also act as the bridge between Facebook users and other departments internally. The Dublin User Operations team works to provide user feedback about new and upcoming features, help users stay safe online and find areas to encourage growth and engagement in markets outside of the US.
Cormac began his career as an SAP consultant with EPC Ltd and then joined Google in 2003, being one of the earliest hires in the EMEA HQ. At Google, he has managed teams in AdWords and Search Quality and then then joined Facebook in 2010. He currently manages the User Operations team which responsible for supporting over 1 billion users across the globe.
Cormac holds a BBS and MSc in Electronic Commerce from DCU.
