Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THIS WEEK, WE heard from our readers on social media regulation, road safety and The Journal’s polls. See our letter guidelines here.
Dear Journal,
With so many of us guilty of relying on screens of one sort or another, I would like to encourage readers to look up – I have seen beautiful Red Kites soaring above both my workplace and my suburban home. The wonders are all around us.
Yours sincerely
Gaye Edwards,
Wicklow
Dear Sir/Madam,
The government published the new long-awaited child maintenance guidelines on 19 January of this year. They have subsequently launched an accompanying online calculator on gov.ie.
The calculator estimates the amount of child maintenance that should be paid by looking at:
A lot of time and effort has obviously been spent on these guidelines. They are extremely fair and should result in much less conflict between parents. Yet there has been almost no promotion of the guidelines by the government and little media coverage. The only group who these guidelines do not benefit are family law solicitors.
Their services will not be required as often if judges start to follow these guidelines and parents know before resorting to court how child maintenance will be divided. Parents can save money on legal costs and the courts’ valuable time will not be taken up with unnecessary disputes.
Disputes between parents over child maintenance often leads to a toxic relationship developing between them with the children involved suffering as a result. It will have an overwhelmingly positive effect on these families if these guidelines are promoted and used by judges as quickly and extensively as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Ciaran O’Doherty,
Limerick
Dear editor,
I think your opinion polls are great gas. I especially enjoy a giggle when you ask a daft question like: ‘Do you ever pick your nose in public?’ or ‘Should a Minister for Foreign Affairs be asked about potholes in West Cork when attending a security conference in Strasbourg?’
Opinion polls online are always going to be skewed by organised ideological groups or groupies. Ask a question about Fianna Fáil and the party faithful will rally, a few holding rosaries in their hands.
As for so-called scientific opinion polls commissioned by newspapers that make headlines… hmm. I think the French law that any opinion poll done three days after an election has been called cannot be published should be copied by the Irish legislature.
Don’t get me started on the topic of election posters.
Yours Sincerely,
Garreth Byrne,
Leitrim
[EU moves towards limiting children's access to social media]
Dear editor,
There has been a lot of debate around regulating social media content, both in Ireland and across Europe.
Many commentators seem to think there are easy solutions, but many fail to understand how the Internet is legally structured.
Some history is required here.
In the 1950s, a Los Angeles bookstore owner was arrested for selling ‘obscene’ books. The case went all the way to the US Supreme Court. The owner won the case claiming, with some justification, that he was just a distributor and not a publisher. There was no way he could be held responsible for all the contents of all the books he sold.
When the Internet took off in the 1990s, websites were being sued for content. The principle of them being mere distributors was confirmed by the US Congress in the famous Section 230 law. This law still structures the Internet today. This is why social media companies are not considered publishers, and so not liable for the billions of pieces of content uploaded by users to their platforms every day, even if a piece of content is illegal or harmful.
The EU is trying to tackle this issue, and we have put some legislation in place, but new and even stronger legislation will take several years. Thankfully, we already have the EU Digital Wallet agreed in law, and the Irish government is now planning to roll out the EU age verification app. President von der Leyen plans to also announce new measures in September.
Hopefully, we then can keep children under 16 off social media.
Barry Andrews MEP
[Tiger Woods turns down chance to captain the United States at Ryder Cup in Adare Manor]
Dear Editor,
I refer to your article about Tiger Woods.
Please stop using the word accident to describe crashing a car.
As Simon Pegg explains, accident implies there’s nobody to blame.
Mark Watkins,
Sligo
Editor’s Response
As I told Mark at the time, he is absolutely correct.
Using the word accident in relation to a road crash is outdated and, in the direct aftermath of an incident, a misuse of language. While very few people set out to deliberately cause a collision, it would be difficult for any journalist to quickly determine something to be completely accidental.
An Garda Síochána stopped using the word many years ago – before this website began publishing back in 2010. They aren’t alone. Research in the UK recently found the use of ‘accident’ is now the exception, rather than the rule – appearing just eight times in 227 press releases, generally as apparent ‘slips of the tongue’ in quotes from officers.
In this case, however, the word slipped through our editing processes because it was coming from a US-based journalist working for one of the international news agencies we use here at The Journal. We usually sub that syndicated copy for style differences, but in this instance, human error meant the reference to an ‘accident’ wasn’t caught.
Although Mark’s reference to Simon Pegg’s Hot Fuzz was perfect for this example, it can lead to other misunderstandings between readers and journalists.
While a journalist can presume no culpability, we also cannot assign blame too early either. We get multiple emails a year, understandably, about driver behaviour on our roads. Many are frustrated at the use of language by gardaí and then, by extension, us.
They say that cars do not hit pedestrians or cyclists – but drivers do. There is a compelling argument here. Self-driving cars aren’t on the roads (yet).
However, a headline of ‘Driver of SUV hits pedestrian in Dublin 2′ can create a sense of culpability which we cannot assume until at least some inquiries are made. It may well be the case but there are also other possibilities.
Overall, we should know more about why these road crashes, and subsequent serious injuries and deaths, happen. Investigations and inquests are carried out, but their findings are never fully or properly collated and shared publicly. Only when this happens can we properly apportion blame and push for accountability. And then, maybe we will have fewer ‘collisions’ to report on.
Sinéad O’Carroll
Editor,
The Journal
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say