Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this debate. The role that social media and online content play in inciting violence against women cannot be overstated. I had the opportunity to meet the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre last Thursday and I heard first-hand about the central role that digital spaces now play in enabling and amplifying violence against woman. The discussions, examples and direction of travel in relation to pornography, what is acceptable, how vast it is developing online, and the role that strangulation plays in pornography is shocking to hear about. Acts that are effectively criminal acts in the real world can be depicted online without any fear of censure, penalty or punishment. It is just totally unacceptable. It is no surprise for anybody who spends time on X or Facebook and sees first-hand the spaces where misogyny and sexual harassment thrive. Accounts that are anonymous spew horrific abuse at often vulnerable individuals across the globe with no consequences for what they do, not to mention the bots and AI accounts that are constantly there, monetising the suffering of others using abuse and exploitation as their tool to rack up all that advertising revenue.

Countries across the world are woefully unprepared for the challenges that lie before us and the pace at which technology is evolving. A regulatory void has been inhabited and exploited by those intent on exploiting tardiness of regulation. Coco's law in this country, for example, was a welcome measure taken by the last Government to combat the non-consensual distribution of intimate images. It recognised the threat that deep-fakes pose but while it prohibits recording and distributing deep-fakes, it does not prohibit their creation, which is a problem in itself. We must look at amending Coco's law to criminalise the non-consensual creation of deep-fakes before this loophole is again abused by those who perpetrate sexual violence online. It will be a test of this Government in meeting the substantial challenges that these new technologies, innovations that they are, will bring, both positive and negative. We have a responsibility to protect our citizens from the real harms that the online world presents.

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