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New Guidelines Published for Parents on Children’s Data Protection Rights.

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) has recently published four short guides for parents on children’s data protection rights under General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). These guides are intended to help parents to understand their children’s rights and to answer questions that can arise in typical situations where those rights apply.

Protecting children’s personal data is an important priority for the DPC, and is one of the five strategic goals of our 2022-2027 Regulatory Strategy. The DPC has also published our ‘Fundamentals’ guidance on children’s data protection rights to help organisations provide the special protection required when they process children’s personal data. These guides are part of the DPC’s work to give effect to the goals stated those documents.

My child’s data protection rights – the basics
The above link outlines some of the issues that can arise when a parent seeks to exercise data protection rights on behalf of their child.

Children’s data and parental consent
The above link looks at the meaning of the ‘digital age of consent’ and outlines when parents’ consent may be needed for processing their child’s personal data, and how parents can approach those cases.

Protecting my child’s data
The above link is intended to help parents understand the rights that they have in relation to their children’s data and gives some useful advice on how to protect their children’s rights.

Finally: Are there any limits on my child’s data protection rights?
This above link shown outlines some important limits to how and when children’s data protection rights may be exercised, whether by children themselves or by parents on their behalf. It outlines some common situations where these can arise and suggests ways in which parents can address them.

The DPC hopes that these guides will be useful not just to parents and guardians, but also to educators and anyone interested in children’s safety and wellbeing online.

If you have any questions about anything you read in these guides, you can email or call the DPC and they will be happy to answer your questions. You can find more information about how to contact the DPC HERE.

The Auld Alarm Clock – Ronnie Drew.

Speaking on the subject of ‘Clocks’ as we did recently HERE; please listen to and enjoy yet another Irish folk song about another type of ticking ‘Clock’. Enough said.

The Auld Alarm Clock

Vocals – Irish singer, folk musician and actor, the great, late Ronnie Drew. (1934 – 2008).
Tune“The Garden Where The Praties Grow”.
Lyric Writer – Unknown

The Auld Alarm Clock.

When first I came to London in the year of 39,
The city looked so wonderful and the girls were so divine,
But the coppers got suspicious and they soon gave me the knock.
I was charged with being the owner of an auld alarm clock.

Oh next morning, down be Marlborough Street, I caused no little stir.
The I.R.A were busy and the telephones did burr.
Said the judge, “I’m going to charge you, with the possession of this machine,
And I’m also going to charge you, with the wearing of the Green”.

And said I to him, “Your honour, if you’ll give me half a chance,
I’ll show you how me small machine can make the peelers dance.
It ticks away politely till you get an awful shock,
And it ticks away the gelignite on me auld alarm clock”.

Said the judge, “Now, listen here my man, and I’ll tell you of our plan.
For you and all your countrymen I do not give a damn.
The only time you’ll take is mine: ten years in Dartmoor dock,
And you can count it by the ticking of your auld alarm clock”
.

Now this lonely Dartmoor city would put many in the jigs.
The cell, it isn’t pretty and it isn’t very big.
Sure, I’d long ago have left the place if I had only got,
Ah, me couple of sticks of ‘geliginite’ and me auld alarm clock.

END.

My Grandfather’s Clock.

My Grandfather’s Clock.

Lyrics – Late American Civil War composer and songwriter Henry Clay Work (1832 – 1884).
Vocals – Late American country singer-songwriter John R. Cash. (1932 – 2003).

According to folklore this famous song ‘My Grandfather Clock’ was inspired by a clock at The George Hotel, in the village of Piercebridge, latter located in the borough of Darlington in County Durham, England.
The hotel in past times was a wayfarers’ inn and was owned and operated by two Jenkins brothers.
In the lobby of the Inn was a longcase tall weight driven pendulum clock, which kept perfect time, until one of the brothers passed away.
Following his passing the clock began to lose time at an increasing rate, despite the best efforts of a local clockmaker to repair it.
When the second brother died, the clock stopped suddenly and completely, never to work again.

It is understood that in 1875 the songwriter, Henry Clay Work, visited the George Hotel, and having listened to the tale of the clock from various employees and locals, he composed this song ‘My Grandfathers Clock’.

We also learn from folklore that the clock appears to recognise both the good and bad events in this grandfather’s life; it rings 24 chimes when the grandfather brings his bride into his house, and near his death it rings out an alarm, which the family recognize as meaning that the old grandfather is near death, and so they gather around his bed side. After the grandfather dies, the clock suddenly stops, and never works again.

My Grandfather’s Clock

My grandfather’s clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half, than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn, of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride,
But it stopped short, never to go again,
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering, his life seconds numbering,
It stopped, short, never to go again,
When the old man died
.

My grandfather said, that of those he could hire,
Not a servant so faithful he found,
For it wasted no time and had but one desire,
At the close of each week to be wound,
And it kept in its place, not a frown upon its face,
And its hand never hung by its side,
But it stopped, short, never to go again,
When the old man died.

It rang an alarm, in the dead of the night,
An alarm that for years had been dumb,
And we knew that his spirit, was pluming for flight,
That his hour for departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time, with a soft and muffled chime,
As we silently stood by his side.
But it stopped, short, never to go again,
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering, his life seconds numbering,
It stopped, short, never to go again,
When the old man died.

[Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick……..]

END

Death Of Australian Comedian, Actor, Author, Satirist, Barry Humphries.

“I was born with a priceless gift, the ability to laugh at the misfortunes of others.”
“Australia is an outdoor country. People only go inside to use the toilet, and that’s a recent development.”,
Above quotes from the great stand-up and now late comedian, John Barry Humphries (1934-2023).

Television viewers here in Co. Tipperary and indeed far beyond, will be greatly saddened by the news of the death of Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist, Mr John Barry Humphries [Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) & Order of Australia (AO)], who passed away today, aged 89 years.

Mr Humphries was best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos of Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.

Although best known to his audiences for his delivery of deliberate irrationality and absurdist humour, Mr Humphries was also a film producer; script writer; a star of London’s West End musical theatre; a writer and a landscape painter.

His alter egos of the lilac-rinsed haired Dame Edna Everage evolved over a forty year period, latter to become a satire of stardom; while his portrayal of an inebriated, boorish, loud-mouthed, uncouth and uncultured, ‘cultural attaché to the Far East’, in the character of Sir Les Patterson, over the past 30 years became a regular feature in his solo theatrical appearances, both in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Having entertained on stage and screen for over ​70 years, we understand that Mr Humphries tripped on a rug, while reaching for a book, back in February, latter resulting in him requiring surgery at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. He had been readmitted to hospital just this week, yet despite his accident, he had fully expected to be back and fighting fit within weeks, but sadly he never recovered.

His passing means the loss of one of our all-time great stand-up comedians.

Oíche mhaith, possum – In ár gcroíthe go deo.

“Puff, the Magic Dragon” Controversy.

The lyrics hereunder tell the story of an ageless dragon named “Puff”, and his playmate, “Jackie Paper”, latter a little boy who grows up and moves on from the imaginary adventures of childhood, leaving a rather disheartened “Puff” without a friend. The song’s story takes place by the sea in the fictional land of Honah-Lee.

Just over 60 years ago a song entitled “Puff, the Magic Dragon” (or “Puff”); written by Peter Yarrow a member of that great American folk group known as “Peter, Paul and Mary” was recorded and released in January 1963. The song was based on a poem initially written by Leonard Lipton.

Even though the song’s composer, Peter Yarrow, insisted that it was not talking about smoking marijuana, that wasn’t good enough for then United States Vice President Spiro Agnew, who deemed it to be pro-narcotics and called for the banning of the tune.
Despite the voices of the powerful and those seeking attention, speaking out against the song, it ended up being a smash hit, peaking at No 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and thus becoming one of the folk trio’s most enduring of hits.
Singer-songwriter and guitarist Peter Yarrow insisted that the song was about the hardships of growing older and had absolutely no relationship, whatsoever, to drug-taking.

After the song’s initial success, speculation suggested, in a 1964 article published in Newsweek, that the song contained veiled references to smoking marijuana. The word “Paper” as in the surname “Jackie Paper”, the dragons human friend was claimed to be a reference to rolling cigarette papers; the words “by the sea” were interpreted as “by the C” (i.e. as in cannabis), the word “mist” supposedly stood for “smoke”, the land of “Honah-Lee” stood for “hashish”, and “dragon” was interpreted as “draggin” (i.e. inhalation of smoke). The name “Puff” was supposed to be a reference to taking a “puff” on a joint.
These suppositions later was claimed to be common knowledge to everyone; in a letter sent to The New York Times in 1984.
The song was banned in Singapore and Hong Kong because authorities believed it did contain references to a drug culture. Our readers can now make up their own minds.

Puff (The Magic Dragon)

Words and Music: Peter Yarrow and the late Leonard Lipton (1940 – 2022)

Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea,
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah-Lee.
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff,
And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff.

Chorus
Oh! Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea,
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah-Lee.
Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea,
And frolicked In the autumn mist in a land called Honah­-Lee.

Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail;
Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puffs gigantic tail.
Noble kings and princes would bow whene’er they came.
Pirate ships would lower their flags when Puff roared out his name.
Repeat Chorus

A dragon lives forever but not so little boys.
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys,
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more,
And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.
His head was bent in sorrow; green scales fell like rain.
Puff no longer went to play along that cherry lane.
Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave,
So Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave.
Repeat Chorus

END

Several new optional verses have since been introduced, including:-

One fine day it happened; Puff woke up from a dream.
He thought he heard a familiar voice and Jackie’s laugh it seemed.
He looked around his cavern and over by the door,
Stood a little boy with a piece of string and a smile he’d seen before.

“Hello My name is Billy, my dad told me your name.
He said I’d find you in the cave along the cherry lane”
.
Puff, that mighty dragon smiled in his joy,
He’d never be alone again for this was Jackie’s boy.