Mr. John Church:

I would ask the representatives of those companies the very question the committee asked us, which I could not answer properly, namely, what are the barriers to proper age verification?

We also spoke about education. The point was made that this is not purely about the legislation, but also education and starting to teach children how to be safe online from an early age and to teach a parent how to have that conversation. We counted 29 different organisations that are going into our primary and post-primary schools and probably teaching 29 different curricula. It should be on the curriculum for the Department of Education and Skills.

I agree that the platforms are, to some extent, very educational tools but what are they doing in order to turn the conversation, switch it around and educate children? A glut of funds is being thrown at various organisations by Google and Facebook. Is that just a box-ticking exercise or is it a true attempt at educating our children?