Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and I apologise for coming in now; I had to go out to something else. I have a question about something I mentioned at the earlier meeting and that I feel very strongly about as a parent of young kids. It is children with access to social media accounts. When we discussed the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, we discussed having a minimum age for social media accounts and putting the responsibility on the companies to implement that and putting stringent controls in place to now allow young children to open or set up accounts. What is Dr. Pekkala's view on that from an EU perspective?

At the time, this was being looked at from an EU-wide point of view but I feel Ireland should go ahead rather than wait for the EU to make a decision. While Coimisiún na Meán is looking at this, I believe we need to go ahead and implement it here ourselves. The reality is that kids as young as eight and nine years of age are actively on social media where there is a significant amount of harm and disinformation. What are Dr. Pekkala's views on that?