Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

No; I find social media boring. However, they are also necessary, which means that we need to manage them for children. I am interested in what happens when a vulnerable person posts online and refers to self-harm or ending his or her life. What is the practical response of Facebook in such cases? Does it get the Garda or families involved? How does it find family members of such persons? Will the delegates outline what occurs in such circumstances in order that we can understand the immediacy involved?

On the circumstances to which Deputy Kathleen Funchion referred, in such cases, does Facebook allow users to seek details other than those that may be available on a person's public profile? Can one find out the identify of the person involved? Will Facebook provide an ISP address? Are such requests allowed? Deputy Kathleen Funchion spoke about an awful and horrific live feed on Facebook.

Facebook does not operate for the good of our health. Its purpose is to generate profit and it owns many social media companies. Google recently announced plans to recruit 10,000 people to tackle abusive content and Facebook plans to double its workforce. The collection of data is very important. While I do not understand how this is done, I am aware that data are collected to target goods and services at people based on their lifestyle. On the collection of children's data, does Facebook apply different rules for those aged under 18 years? I know that it does not collect data for the good or health of the nation. The profits of social media companies appear to be tied with getting to know what people might need and enticing them to buy services by promising them that certain products will make them wonderful and that they will have a great life if they buy them. I hope I have not rambled on.