IRISH MIRROR COMMENT:

ONE of Ireland’s top cops has slammed the State for failing to keep our children safe from online sexual predators.

The comments from Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy come shortly after sick paedo Matthew Horan was caged for nine-and-a-half years for possessing thousands of child abuse images and coercing young girls to send him sexually graphic pictures.

Mr Leahy has called for policing the web as we would the streets.

The internet is notoriously hard to watch over and prides itself on free speech.

But Mr Leahy warned self regulation would not work when it came to child safety online.

And he added parents and wider society have not helped by giving uncontrolled access to youngsters.

Parents and educators are under severe pressure from kids for the latest piece of tech.

But Mr Leahy is right to highlight that we need to know who our children are talking to online.

Laws are still playing catch-up with rapid online advances.

And in the meantime dubious vigilante groups have filled a vacuum, where fake profiles are used to snare suspected paedos.

As the number of sex offenders shoots up alongside the explosion of social media, gardai, educators and parents need to be given the resources to tackle this digital scourge.