Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. This is probably one of the best tutorials I have had in my 16-odd years as a TD, so it is a great privilege to be in a room with such august individuals. It has been fascinating and I have sat through it all. It will take me a couple of days to unpick what I have heard today. What prompted me to bring this up and call for this hearing was that I read an article in The Guardianabout AI-created child sexual abuse images threatening to overwhelm the Internet. It was written by Dan Milmo, who is the global technology editor, and was published on 25 October 2023. I will not read out the document except to read one quotation in it, which relates to the IWF warnings that issued in the summer of last year. The IWF is quoted as stating:

Chillingly, we are seeing criminals deliberately training their AI on real victims' images who have already suffered abuse. Children who have been raped in the past [I am sorry to use such strong language] are now being incorporated into new scenarios because someone, somewhere, wants to see it.

The foundation went on to state it had also seen evidence of AI-generated images being sold online and that its latest findings were based on a month-long investigation into a child abuse forum on the dark web. This is the children's committee and we do everything we can to have hearings of this nature to see how we can best protect children. I am going to stay focused on children and the law. This has been a fascinating interaction with the witnesses.

Forgive me if I dispense with formal titles but in their interactions Barry and Caoilfhionn spoke on the EU Act, the AI Act, the Finnish model and the Council of Europe draft framework. Barry referred on no less than three occasions to the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act. I do not want to misinterpret his words but if I understand him correctly I am picking up that there may be some something in what he is saying that suggests the Act may not be fit for purpose for the times we live in. That is the first question for Barry.

The second question is for Caoilfhionn as the special rapporteur on child protection. On the issue of Coimisiún na Meán and the recommended algorithms, what will be the commission's powers of enforceability in law? Has the commission the legal standing to be able to call those companies to account? What is Caoilfhionn's interpretation of the law specifically in relation to that? Those are the first two questions.