Ms Niamh Sweeney:

We are looking ahead to how it will apply to us. We are actually meeting with the BAI on Thursday, even though it is a little early for that. It asked if we would meet so that we could start to get a handle on some of the challenges ahead if it does end up in that situation. The guidance that will follow the actual directive in terms of determining the principal purpose of a service when it comes to video-sharing platforms should be issued sometime towards the end of the year. A lot of this will only take shape when those guidelines come out.

The issue of age verification is a challenge. It is something I have talked about here before. One change that came about on our side on foot of the "Dispatches" programme, which the Deputy will recall we were before the committee to talk about on 1 August, is that prior to "Dispatches" we used to act with respect to underage accounts when we received a report - and I would encourage everyone here to report to us if they know of anyone under 13 who is using Instagram or Facebook because we will take action - whereas now, if we have any reason to believe that the user is underage, we will checkpoint that account. This means that the person must provide identification to regain access.

There was a question about advertising and our commercial model. Those under 18 years of age are protected from certain types of advertisements on Facebook and advertisements for gambling, alcohol, certain health products such as diet pills and dating apps will not be surfaced to them in their newsfeeds. I take the wider point about the commercial model. In general, it is an advertisement-funded free service and it does not give me much wriggle room to make concessions in respect of the model today.