AN MEP has called for the people behind the Neknomination online drinking game phenomenon - which claimed the life of 19-year-old Co Carlow man Jonathan Byrne in early February – to be prosecuted.
Jonathan's body was found on Sunday morning, February 2, hours after he drank a pint and entered the River Barrow at Milford Bridge.
Independent MEP Ness Childers said: 'There is no reason why dangerous online games can't result in arrest and prosecution.'
She said: 'We've all witnessed how so-called Neknominations can spiral out of control – sometimes with fatal consequences. New technologies demand new rules – social-networking is not a lawless sphere that can exist without consequences.'
The online game involves someone challenging a friend to drink alcohol and the challenge is then pased on to another friend.
The binge drinking game often involves doing a party piece afterwards.
At Jonathan's funeral, parish priest Fr Thomas Lalor spoke of the peer pressure that leads people to many risks and challenges which can have 'disastrous consequences'.
Source: David Looby, independent.ie, 09/04/14
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