Ms Alex Cooney:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. I will pick up on Professor O'Sullivan's points on the GDPR and the digital age of consent in Ireland being set at 16.

We did research on this in 2019 and 2020. We looked at what had changed with regard to the sign-up procedures of the social media platforms and their efforts to check the age of users signing up. What we concluded was that while it got slightly harder to sign up by 2020, really, for a determined child, it was extremely easy to bypass the age verification systems that had been put in place. We know they are not effective. Even though we have a digital age of consent in Ireland of 16, it is not being enforced and adhered to.

To pick up on the data points the Deputy referenced, we have been tracking this over the past six or seven years. In our trends and usage data reports that we publish each year, we look at what social media platforms and gaming platforms children are engaging with. The figure of 84% in this regard relates to eight- to 12-year-old children who have accounts on the likes of YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and WhatsApp. Those tend to be the five most popular apps year on year. YouTube was always the most popular followed closely by TikTok and Snapchat. That is where those figures come from. All those children are under the minimum age requirement for those services. WhatsApp has a minimum age requirement of 16.

I will pick up again on Professor O'Sullivan's point about the people who are creating this content. To my knowledge, under the e-safety legislation that is in place in Australia, there is some onus or responsibility put on the individual who posted whatever harmful content is in question. Maybe that is something. When we were presenting to a committee here a few years ago, we suggested that it be considered for inclusion in the legislation that governs us. It was not considered necessary, however, so we do not have it in place. It might be worth referencing what the Australians have in place under that legislation. It could be a way of deterring people from posting some of this content. That is everything I want to say at this point.