Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to speak on amendment No. 27. WhatsApp is going to ask new users to confirm that they are aged 16 years, Facebook will ask children between 13 years and 15 years to nominate a parent or guardian to grant permission, children who do not have parental permission for Facebook will see a generic version of Facebook that is not customised, based on their personal data. This shows that children will continue to have access to the Internet, but their data will not be exploited. Setting the digital age at 16 years will not mean that a 13 year old cannot use Facebook, which I am using as an example, however, it will mean that Facebook cannot use the 13 year old. The child will be protected from targeted advertising derived from personal data. This is not so different from the rules placing a ban on advertisements targeted at children in the offline world, including broadcasting. The point is that while people may make the argument that no matter whether the age of digital consent is set at 13 years or 16 years, the technology is not yet available to check age verification at this stage and that a young person of 13 years could pretend to be older.

We are putting an onus on social media companies to ensure they are adhering to a clear legal guideline; they are not allowed to exploit the data of somebody within that age cohort for commercial purposes. That is the protection we are seeking to put in place.

We all agree with the arguments of prominent people like Dr. Geoffrey Shannon on the issue of child protection. One could argue that the drafters of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child could not possibly have foreseen companies like Facebook and WhatsApp, commercial companies that can exploit children and use their information. They can use their name, address and date of birth and geotag them; they know exactly where they are and have access to all of their photographs. They can use that information for nefarious purposes and most definitely drive their bottom line.

What we are seeking to do in putting forward this amendment is to keep in line with many other European countries who are also in this space. Those states are interpreting the regulation from the European Union. We are also seeking to ensure we do not have a situation where children aged 13 to 16 years are being exploited and their information is being used to commercial advantage. We wish to put the onus back on social media companies. I repeat that WhatsApp and Facebook have already announced their intention to adopt a uniform approach in line with that taken in other European countries in how they use data. They are putting protocols in place to that effect. I, therefore, ask the Government to accept a digital age of consent of 16 years on the basis that the market seems to be moving in that direction. Social media companies are moving it way and we should not be behind the curve in how we interpret the regulation. We should at least be on it, if possible.