Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My second question relates to what Professor O'Neill said about the digital age of consent. We took part in lengthy deliberations last week with Dr. Mary Aiken, who is also a member of the Internet Content Governance Advisory Group and Professor Barry O'Sullivan. They are advocating for the age to be 16 years. They made compelling arguments for the age to be increased from 13 years to 16 years. Can Professor O'Neill enlighten us with his understanding of the interpretation of the EU regulation as it relates to the distinction between Internet freedoms and a 13-year-old child yielding all personal data to a website, social media site or whatever? Can Professor O'Neill understand that some of us are fearful of keeping it at 13 years and not increasing it to 16 years? We fear that if a child at the age of 13 years is yielding all this information to an unknown entity, then that information can be used for all manner of nefarious reasons. It is possibly the case that we misunderstand what is in the regulation. I am keen to hear the opinion of the group representatives. I will focus the question towards Mr. Lupton.