Mr. Dualta ? Broin:

I thank the Deputy for the question. I saw the coverage of the comments from the Tánaiste and the Ministers, Deputies Foley and Deputy Donnelly, over the weekend, so we are very aware of the concerns in that space. I would mention the FUSE programme again. It is great to see that the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Department of Education are now bringing that on and further developing it, which is fantastic to see.

In the age verification space, I will ask Mr. Miles to talk through what it is we do at the moment. We have been hearing this not just from the Minister, Deputy Foley, and the Tánaiste but across Europe, and not just from policymakers but from regulators as well. There are a number of initiatives under way and a number of working groups have been set up by the European Commission to look at the question of age, and that is also tied to the question of a potential European ID.

There are complications in this space. For example, there are privacy issues to be dealt with and resolved. That is why we are taking the position of trying to ascertain the ideal outcome of all of this, which is that the entire ecosystem would be able to rely on a reliable signal in regard to the age of the user. There are a number of points where that could be done. One is at the app store level and there are potentially others, including the telcos and the devices themselves. We believe that if that were mandated at a European level, that signal could then be transferred not just to us but to every single app, including the smaller apps that are just starting and can sometimes flare up in terms of popularity among younger users. That would be a step forward and would be a resolution of the age verification question.

We would still have huge responsibilities to ensure all of the users are then placed into an age-appropriate experience, but it would move us beyond this question of age verification and how to solve age verification at a European level. We advocate that it would be more effective for Ireland to be advocating with the European Commission, which is looking at this area and considering how best to bring forward a harmonised EU-wide age verification solution, than doing it member state by member state, which brings us back to a fragmentation approach, which is the very issue we are trying to avoid. Mr. Miles might address the steps we take at the moment in terms of managing age.