Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their attendance. I will start with the process involved in arriving at the age of 13 about which I have concerns. Nobody has given me confidence about the age of 13. Why not 14 or 15? The reason I am concerned is because there are many 13 year olds who are not mature enough. I and all members of the committee are in favour of empowering children. We are talking about giving children rights at 13 years of age. The comment about the photo amounts to removing a right from a parent. As the parent of a 13-year old child, I am being told that my child has the right to put up a provocative photo of herself but as her parent, I have no right to remove that. I find that most alarming. That will send shockwaves to parents everywhere who want to protect their children. We want to protect the rights of children without removing their rights.