Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 19 May 2021

Joint Committee on Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht

General Scheme of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed)

Dr. Theo Bertram:

I agree with much of what the Deputy said. I will not go over it because I would not be able to put it as eloquently as he did. There are two key issues. The more objective we can be in defining what harms are, the better. As the Deputy said, we have to think of the marginal voices, not just the majority. There will be important cases where we may not remove certain content from the platform because we are protecting voices that are uncomfortable for some people to hear but where it is important that they are heard. It is difficult to say what level of exposure teenagers should have to difficult content that deals with, for example, abortion and issues such as that. The question is how we should protect them from that but also how we can ensure they are educated about those issues. These are all difficult questions, involving balancing different sets of rights and so on. It is about objectivity and always ensuring that marginal voices are protected.

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