Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 6 December 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

Cybersecurity for Children and Young Adults: Discussion (Resumed)

9:30 am

Ms Siobhán Cummiskey:

Ms Sweeney makes the point well that AI is very useful for certain types of content which clearly violate our policies. However when it comes to bullying, the situation is extremely nuanced, as the Chairman has referenced. That is really a situation in which AI will not be a silver bullet. It is certainly something we are using more and more. It can be very effective in certain spaces such as our counterterrorism efforts. When it comes to bullying, that is where real people come in. This is where a real person reviewing and understanding the content is so important. When the person affected by the post reports it, that context is also taken into account by the reviewer. They can see that Siobhán Cummiskey, for example, has reported this page and the page is called Siobhán Cummiskey. Those kinds of connections are really important. The subtlety underneath is something that native speakers can really get a good handle on. That is also why we work with NGOs. They can tell us when there is a new trend. We do not know every new trend in every new country unless or until we have partners who can tell us. They can tell us what new slang words and slur words people are using. All of that helps us to be really nimble and we can basically cascade information to our reviewers the same day. We can tell them that there is this new trend or this new piece of information in this market which they should be aware of when they get reports into their queues. That is where reporting and real people become so important.