Safer Internet Day 2025 Event
Prepare / Protect / Thrive:
Navigating Algorithms and Influencers
Hosted in Microsoft Dream Space, the 2025 Safer Internet Day event brings together key stakeholders to discuss and reflect on the key opportunities and challenges facing children and young people online. With access to so much information online this Safer Internet Day we will explore how to protect and empower them to navigate the opportunities and challenges of these powerful influences.
The event will be hosted by Gavan Reilly (Virgin Media) and will feature keynote contributions from the 5Rights Foundation, European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency, Professor Debbie Ging (Dublin City University) and Niamh Hodnett, Online Safety Commissioner – Coimisiún na Meán.
Please note this event is at full capacity. A recording of the event will be available. Please contact internetsafety@oide.ie.
Agenda
- 10.30-11.00am: Coffee and Registration
- 11.00am: Event Begins
- 11.10-11.30am: Welcome and introduction from Webwise Youth Advisory Panel
- 11.30am: From compliance to innovation for children: Next steps for Safety by Design: Manon Baert, EU Advocacy & Policy Officer, 5Rights Foundation
- 12.00pm: Unboxing Influencer Culture: Risks Challenges and Opportunities: Professor Debbie Ging, Dublin City University
- 12.30pm: Under the influence? Panel Discussion – Fiona Jennings – Head of Policy and Public Affairs at ISPCC, Mark Walsh – Head of Market Insights Unit at the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) and Webwise Youth Advisory Panellist
- 1.00pm: Light lunch
- 1.40pm: The impact of AI and algorithms on everyday life: Understanding opportunities and risks, and preventing harms: Yves Punie, European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency
- 2.10pm: Fostering Digital Media Literacy – Panel Discussion: Catherine Cross – National Parents Council, Martina Chapman – Media Literacy Ireland, Kevin Doherty – Oide Digital Technologies, Amanda Jolliffe – Microsoft Ireland and Webwise Youth Advisory Panellist
- 2.40pm: Prepare / Protect / Thrive: Final Reflections: Manon Baert (5Rights Foundation), Professor Debbie Ging (DCU), Mick Moran (Hotline), Yves Punie (ECAT) and Webwise Youth Advisory Panellist.
- 3.00pm: Looking forward: Niamh Hodnett, Online Safety Commissioner, Coimisiún na Meán
- 3.15pm: Event close
About our speakers
Manon Baert, EU Advocacy & Policy Officer, 5Rights Foundation
Manon Baert is the EU Advocacy & Policy Officer at 5Rights Foundation, advocating for a better digital world for children, by design and by default. She previously worked in EU affairs within a non-profit and a consultancy, focusing on human rights and sustainability, as well as at the EU Delegation to the Council of Europe, where she followed the negotiations for EU accession to the ECHR and on the Convention on AI. Manon graduated from the College of Europe and holds a LLM from Maastricht University.
Professor Debbie Ging, Dublin City University
Debbie Ging is Professor of Digital Media and Gender in the School of Communications at Dublin City University and Director of the DCU Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities. Debbie’s research addresses youth experiences of gender-based and sexual abuse online and educational interventions to tackle this issue. She sits on the government-commissioned Online Health Taskforce in Ireland and has acted as expert advisor to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education + Skills, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, the Radicalization Awareness Network (RAN) of the European Commission, Meta, Scotland Police and the ISPCC, among others.
Yves Punie, European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency
Yves Punie is Deputy Head of the EC Joint Research Centre Unit on Algorithmic Transparency. The Unit is hosting the “European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency” (ECAT) working towards a safer, more predictable and trusted online environment for people and business. The ECAT contributes with scientific and technical expertise to the European Commission’s exclusive supervisory and enforcement role of the systemic obligations on Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) provided for under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Niamh Hodnett,
Online Safety Commissioner
Niamh Hodnett has extensive experience in designing, enforcing and managing compliance with regulatory obligations in the online and communications fields. Her regulatory expertise spans data protection, cybersecurity, competition, consumer protection and communications regulation.
Her online safety experience includes putting in place a Memorandum of Understanding with An Garda Síochána as well as an Interpol Agreement on blocking access to the Interpol worst of list of child sex abuse material and overseeing implementation. She also has significant experience of putting in place online measures to protect people at risk of gambling addiction online. Niamh has brought criminal prosecutions for regulatory breaches as well as civil enforcement compliance proceedings. She has in-depth litigation experience of appeals and judicial reviews.
Niamh’s most recent role was Chief Legal and Regulatory officer at Premier Lotteries, the operator of the National Lottery. She was previously Head of Regulatory Affairs at the mobile phone company, Three Ireland, a senior legal advisor with the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg), a regulatory lawyer with An Post and a member of the EU, competition & regulatory law teams at Mayer Brown in Brussels and Matheson in Dublin.
Niamh qualified as a solicitor in 1998 and is an expert in regulatory law with extensive knowledge and experience of both Irish and European law. She studied Law and German at UCC and has a master’s in law from Universität Passau in Germany. She has co-authored European Law published by Oxford University Press and Regulatory Law in Ireland published by Tottel. She is also a qualified mediator.
