Ms Niamh Sweeney:

Grand. With regard to the digital safety commissioner Bill, I say again that we are very happy to continue to engage on that and we thank members for the opportunity to do that.

On the point about people who are under 13, it was indicated that members would like a better explanation of how this would be enforced and how we would limit distribution of disturbing content to those over 18 only. Since our creation, the policy has been that a person must be 13 or over to use the platform. It was only if an account was reported to us specifically for being held by an underage person that we would investigate and put the account on hold if there were indications that the user was underage. There has been a change arising from the programme and if a reviewer doing a report for any reason suspects an account holder is underage, the account will be put on hold and information requested. The limited distribution for those over 18 is based on the age given to us by users. Unless we are led to believe users are underage, we go by what they tell us. There are various different principles laid down in data protection law around the idea of data minimisation as to why that is the case, and we can talk about that if it is helpful.

I hope I did not misrepresent an idea of forced time off, and there was no forced time off for the staff involved. This has been very difficult for everyone and I have to imagine it has been very difficult for the people who were filmed. It would not be a comfortable position for anybody to be in and the level of scrutiny in the weeks since the programme was aired has been intense. The idea was to give these people a chance to take some time out and regroup. It was not forced time off and no one is being thrown under the bus here. Content review is a very difficult job. The programme clearly highlighted serious issues with our policies and the training materials being used, as well as enforcement of policies, but at times people reviewing very difficult content all day, every day, would sometimes reach for a turn of phrase that would not seem appropriate. In very difficult circumstances, we can all imagine how we might reach for humour at a time when it does not seem appropriate outside. Certainly, I would not blame any of my colleagues because it is such a very difficult job to do. I want to leave members with the firm impression that we are taking full responsibility for this and implementing the changes. I do not want to pre-empt the outcome of the internal investigation but I also do not want to suggest we are heading towards laying the blame firmly at someone else's door.