Dáil debates

Wednesday, 21 September 2022

Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Second Stage

 

4:37 pm

Photo of Martin KennyMartin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to speak to this legislation. Online safety affects all of our lives and we all experience the issue. It is particularly acute when we think of children and young people at a very vulnerable age. All of us can be annoyed and frustrated by things that are said about us online and so on. For adults it is not as big an issue but it certainly is a big issue for younger people. Teenage bullying, which has resulted in suicide in some cases, is one of the issues that needs to be dealt with in this legislation. The platforms through which all of this works do not take their responsibility seriously enough. While many Deputies have mentioned contacting the various companies and asking them to deal with these issues, they are very slow to take down the material. Taking down the material is not nearly enough. There needs to be consequences for people who will set out intentionally to damage someone’s life in that way. I hope the online media commission to be set up under the legislation will be able to deal this situation in a real way. Too many people have suffered serious anxiety, worry and fear as a result of what has happened online in their lives. I listened to some of the debate earlier and the issues raised are very serious for very many families.

One of the problems this legislation will face is resourcing. We have so many multimedia companies based and headquartered in Ireland and so much traffic, if you like, from all quarters of the world goes through here that we need to resource this adequately to deal with the problem we face.

Prominent among the issues being raised is freedom of speech. People are entitled to have an opinion and put that view forcefully forward and have everyone see who they are when they are doing it. When it is done anonymously, to cause hatred and fear or attack and undermine somebody there is a problem. The multimedia companies have to be held to account for the way in which many people hide behind anonymous accounts when they engage in this sort of behaviour. It is not appropriate that they can get away with that and simply allow people to behave in that fashion anonymously.

Changes to the defamation law are needed to ensure that people who defame people, wherever they do it but particularly online, cannot just hide behind an anonymous account and get away with it. In those circumstances, the multimedia or social media account holder needs to be held responsible for that defamation. That is one measure that could be included in the Bill. I have looked at legislation in respect of that and this is one of the ways forward.

In general, while the Minister is trying to do the right thing, she is trying to do an awful lot in one Bill. I just hope the resources will be provided to back it up.

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