Ms Alex Cooney:

I thank the Chair and members of the committee for inviting us to speak today. We appreciate the opportunity to address this crucial issue and will keep our remarks brief, though we are happy to answer questions afterward. CyberSafeKids is an Irish charity focused on promoting online safety for children and empowering families, educators and policy makers to take informed action. We have been researching children’s digital lives for more than a decade and our findings inform our education, advocacy and policy efforts. I am CEO, and here with me is our board director, Ms Clare Daly.

Children today are growing up in a digital world where technology plays a central role. While digital platforms offer opportunities, they also expose children to risks that totally undermine their rights, as outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, in general comment 25. The Internet was not designed with children in mind and meaningful protections have been slow to materialise. As AI evolves, it is critical to understand the risk it poses to children’s safety, especially in three areas: AI-powered recommender systems, AI-generated deepfakes and AI-powered chatbots. Starting with recommender algorithms, they shape much of what children see online. Platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram use personal data, such as age, location and interests, to create detailed profiles and serve content. While this can seem helpful, these algorithms often expose children to harmful material - including stuff they do not want to see - with little transparency. We hear about this all the time from children themselves. A 13-year old girl recently said to us, "Sometimes I can feel nervous when I am on my phone. It is very easy to come across rude content that you do not want to see."

Despite platforms claiming to ban harmful content, disturbing material still slips through, such as explicit videos or graphic violence. Last year, the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth recommended that recommender systems be turned off by default for children under 16. However, no significant reform has yet been published. While the Digital Services Act offers some hope, current guidelines allow for too much optionality. We urge the committee to make clear recommendations to ban the use of profiling data for content recommendations directed at children. Recommended content should be based only on their explicitly stated interests and shown in chronological order where applicable, including content from accepted friends or connections - never based on inferred or behavioural data.