Ms Sue Duke:

It is in Limerick. I am sorry. Let us consider the scale of the content. There are approximately 72 hours worth posted every minute. The committee can imagine the difficulty that poses in terms of having someone examining the content going up given that every minute there are 72 hours going up.

What YouTube is, why it works, why it is so successful and why people go back to it is because it allows them to take a video and upload and share it instantly. That is an integral and central part of the platform. That is why people love it and why we had 1 trillion views in 2011. It is important to maintain the integrity of the platform for the vast majority of users who use it for good.

It is not a question of either pre-screening the content or doing nothing. I have already referred today to several systems we have in place to ensure that when content is uploaded and if it breaks the rules, then it is flagged and we get to that content quickly. If it breaks the rules we take it down very quickly. We are constantly improving those systems and examining them to see where we can make improvements. For example, recently we introduced the deputise programme where we have trusted flaggers in organisations. These are people that we know who have a history of flagging content that was abusive and that broke the rules. Such people have logged complaints with us and it turns out that they were legitimate complaints. Now, we look at the flags these people log quickly because we know that they are a reliable source. Other organisations have done likewise.

The Deputy referred to apps for education. We have a Google apps for education programme. I do not know much about it to be honest but I know it does something similar to what the Deputy suggested, namely, it is a bespoke system with content only for educational purposes and which is suitable for students. Similarly, there is a safety mode on YouTube. This means a parent can set YouTube to safety mode and this means mature content that does not break the rules but which is not necessarily appropriate for a child will be hidden. This tool is available to parents and I would be happy to send on some more information especially on the apps for education and what is involved in that suite of products.