Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I wish to come back on a couple of points. First, on the age of consent, there are two reasons I proposed to raise that to 16. The first is in respect of contract law. The minimum age for participation in a contract is 16. Equally, the age to give consent for a medical procedure is 16, and it makes sense to bring it into line with that. Whether it is 13 or 16 I do not think people should be lulled into any false sense of security here in relation to the safety of children on the Internet. The difficulty many people have with the actions of online companies is that kind of relentless targeting of children, the harvesting of their data, the profiling of children and their families and then targeting them for commercial or marketing purposes.

The Minister has not given his own opinion on whether he believes that is an acceptable practice. We know that it is happening on a widespread basis at the moment. What is his view on that? Does he think it is acceptable that our children are subjected to that kind of marketing? Neither did the Minister respond to the issue I raised earlier on the age of consent although he quoted the Children's Rights Alliance and the children's Ombudsman in respect of the age of consent.

The Minister has not responded on the more important issue, the need to introduce, in conjunction with this, a statutory prohibition on the use of children's data for marketing purposes. What is his response to the statement made by both bodies?

I expressed the view that the amendments from Deputies Mick Wallace and Clare Daly were too wide insofar as there were issues related to market research, legitimate activities in that respect and demographic analysis of activities online. They are legitimate activities. For that reason, I would be more in favour of a prohibition on the profiling of children's data. That is in line with Sinn Féin's amendment.

The Minister talked about encouraging voluntary codes of conduct. We know that voluntary codes of conduct do not work with online companies and that they have only taken action where they have been found to be doing something that they should not be doing. We also know that originally in the general data protection regulation, GDPR, prohibiting the profiling of children's data was raised. We also know that there was much pressure exerted by online companies and it continues. I have been contacted by companies, as I am sure others have. Online and digital companies do not want a prohibition on the profiling of children's data. They want to have a free hand to harvest children's data and use them for their own commercial purposes such as direct marketing. Most people find this unacceptable and the Minister has not provided a strong case for not prohibiting that practice. Let us forget about voluntary codes of conduct and encouraging companies. It will only happen if companies are precluded by domestic law from engaging in this practice. We have an opportunity to do so to protect childhood from the relentless targeting that happens for marketing purposes.

This is a much more significant issue than the digital age of consent and many recognised bodies are calling for it to happen. Children deserve to be allowed to live their childhood without their data being used for marketing purposes. The Minister should heed what is being stated by the Children's Rights Alliance, the Ombudsman for Children, the Irish Heart Foundation and many other organisations that have children's interests to the fore.