Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Government should examine the British legislation, which expressly provides for the establishment of an age verification regulator. The responsibility of the regulator is to ensure that children are not exposed to online pornography. We need also to place more of a responsibility on the social media, large technology companies, that are making huge profits. We need to try to set up a statutory office, expanding the role of IFCO, in order that there can be an obligation on the providers of pornography to be satisfied that the people to whom they are providing it are over the age of 18 years. I am aware that when the UK was giving this responsibility to the British Board of Film Classification, there were some privacy concerns.

The issue in the UK is not about trying to identify who is watching pornography. The objective of the legislation and the new statutory position is to ensure that the person providing the pornography has verification that the person watching it is aged over 18 years. The Government is going to have to do something about this because the prevalence of violent pornography on the Internet is such that some steps be taken to ensure social media companies or the people providing it are responsible for it. We have a responsibility as an Oireachtas.

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