Niamh

I'm 17 years old.

No, I don't think we should ban social media for under 16s.

Social media is a really powerful tool.

It's a form of education, civic education.

Young people learn about current affairs.

It also teaches young people about new hobbies and skills, crafts, music.

It's a form of communication.

And when students and under-16s have family who live abroad, who have family who live and friends who live across the country, well, social media is very effective in communication.

Obviously, it's a form of self-expression.

There's so many apps in which you can develop skills like photography, again, music, and you can post your music, post your photography.

And this is a great form of self-expression and helps students develop their personalities.

It also enables advocacy.

I'm with the Irish Second Level Students Union, and we use social media, Instagram and TikTok, to communicate with students.

Young people find out about us through social media.

They find out about our events and our campaigns.

They take part in those events.

Some of them come up.

Go on and become members.

That's how I became involved in the Irish Second Level Students' Union.

We ran a campaign last year about women in sports and that was done online.