Ms Áine Lynch:

We need to make sure that when we are talking about protecting children, we use the right tools to do so. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child gives explicit rights to children. Before we walk all over those by using legislation in the wrong way to protect children, we should be very careful about taking those rights away from children. We need to make sure that we protect those rights, unless the risk is so high that we have to look at those rights again. My colleagues and I agree with the age of 13 because we are not talking about child protection with the digital age of consent. A lot needs to be done to support child protection but I do not think the digital age of consent is the right tool to use to protect children. We need to be very clear about children's rights in the digital world as well as their protections.