Mr. Ian Power:

I do. Ultimately, it is from infancy upwards, which is a long game. However, in terms of what we can do in the short and medium term, for perpetrators, who are predominantly male, at present there is no accountability so there is no deterrent to refrain from engaging in either offensive behaviour or harmful behaviour. The purpose of all of us being here today is that we have seen that the lack of specific offences on the Statute Book has prevented gardaí in local Garda stations around the country from being able to take reports and complaints from citizens about, say, image-based sexual abuse, harassment, cyberbullying or otherwise, and bring those cases through to resolution after deciding whether it is a civil or criminal matter.

From our perspective, we need to see the gardaí being able to very clearly see what is an offence on the Statute Book and being able to take that and enforce it, so there is a deterrent that stops people from engaging in this type of behaviour. At present, there simply is not. We see so many cases where images are shared in private messaging groups and, ultimately, there is no sanction for that. Therefore, we cannot be surprised that it continues to happen.

We do not solicit these cases and we are not a one-to-one service, but somehow they still come to us because there is nowhere else for people to go. We have had a number of cases where younger guys, perhaps in their late teens, have shared images with somebody else, where the other person had a false identity and was then extorting them with the threat of sharing the images publicly. That has a huge impact on those young people.

We have been able to escalate them to the child exploitation unit within the Garda. However, at local level the resources and capacity to respond are just not available. We need the legal framework to be able to do it. We need legal aid for young people to gain access to remedies quickly. Ultimately, we need the regulation to regulate any other harmful content.

To address the Senator's opening point, just because something is posted and taken down quickly, there is still the event and it should still be prosecuted, particularly where adults are concerned. It is not enough to have the content removed. It still needs to be pursued. It is not the case that once the content is removed, that is the end of the matter. It should be pursued relentlessly in order that a deterrent is clear and clearly established in order that we can start to clamp down on this behaviour. I hope education will do us right in time, but it is a long game. We need to have the legal framework now in order to be able to deal with things in the short and medium term.