Mr. Declan McLoughlin:

The benefit of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act is that it comes at the issue from a wide range of perspectives. There is the online safety code and its related provisions, including enforcement provisions. There is statutory guidance, which allows the commission to pinpoint societal issues - first and foremost are those set out in the Act, such as suicide, self-harm and eating disorders – and tease out what that means and what best practice should look like in a social media video sharing platform context. Importantly, there are other functions, such as the nominated bodies. This provision under the Act allows the commission to develop a scheme whereby certain bodies in society, for example, civil society bodies, are essentially appointed as nominated bodies and they have certain powers and functions under the Act that would allow them to tell the commission whether there are consistent issues with a platform, for example, non-compliance with the code. There are provisions for us to undertake audits. There is also individual complaints handling.

When it comes to empowering children and parents, the strong provisions in the Act around media literacy are important. Coimisiún na Meán is in the Media Literacy Ireland network, which comprises a wide range of stakeholders that are focused on media literacy through empowering people to critically understand engagement with the online world, create content and protect themselves. That is reflected in the online safety code, under which it is proposed that the video sharing platform services produce annual action plans on media literacy and report to the commission on same.

The commission is empowered to apply a range of different perspectives to this issue. There is the hard regulation, engagement with the platforms and, regarding the public, there is media literacy. The Act is flexible in terms of responding to changes in technology and harm. The commission can lever a range of strong powers to address issues like empowerment and non-compliance.