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 Niamh Sweeney:

All advertisements are reviewed before they go online. In some cases it is automated and in some cases it is done by human review. The human review part is subject to further investment in the next 12 months. That is part of what was recently announced in respect of our advertising transparency efforts. The Chairman mentioned some of the things which took place on the platform in the US last year. Things happened which should not have happened. It is part of the constant effort to evolve to meet challenges as they arise, things that we did not necessarily anticipate. There is a huge amount happening in the area of advertising transparency. I can detail some of that if it would be helpful. One of the things that is happening is that we are adding to the team that conducts the human reviews. Some of the process will remain automated, but some advertisements, once flagged for certain risks, will go for human review. In all cases at least one of those two things happens.