Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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Táim sásta a bheith anseo chun an cheist thar a bheith tábhachtach seo a phlé. Mar Aire Cultúir, Cumarsáide agus Spóirt, is í an tsábháilteacht ar líne, go háirithe do leanaí agus daoine óga, an chloch is mó ar mo phaidrín. Dála go leor eile sa Teach seo, is tuismitheoir mé mar aon le polaiteoir. Mar sin, tá sábháilteacht ar líne tábhachtach domsa mar athair.

I am pleased to be here this afternoon to discuss this very important issue. As Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, online safety, in particular for children and young people, is a top priority for me. However, like many others in the House, I am a parent as well as a politician, so online safety is even important to me as a father.

Like so many other important public policy issues that we discuss in this House, online safety is a complex issue. If we take a step back and think of the technological advances we have made in the past 20 years, we can see how the Internet and digitalisation have helped to improve our lives. We can avail of a range of Government services online in a convenient and secure fashion. Instead of having to take a day off work to renew a passport, we can do it online from the comfort of our homes.

We can apply online for social welfare entitlements and get a response very quickly.

As part of that technological leap forward, the advent of social media means, on the positive side, that we are connected as a community and as a nation as never before. We can both teach others and learn from them in ways that were unfathomable for previous generations. However, there are also risks and we need to constantly bear in mind the need for online safety, particularly when it comes to our children.

As many Members of the House of a certain age might be able to say, we are digital immigrants. On the other hand, our children are digital natives. Social media, with everything it brings, is part of their lives. So, it is essential that we make sure that children do not see illegal, harmful or age-inappropriate content while being able to safely avail of all the benefits of the online world.

The regulation of online platforms has undergone a transformation in recent years as a result of groundbreaking legislation, notably the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022 - the OSMR Act - which underpinned the establishment of Coimisiún na Meán and provided the legislative basis for the online safety code. In addition to an coimisiún’s role as media regulator, it now implements a range of online safety legislation from across the Government. This new online safety framework consists of three main elements: the aforementioned OSMR Act, which transposed the audiovisual media services directive; the EU Digital Services Act, DSA, under which an coimisiún is Ireland’s digital services co-ordinator, and the EU terrorist content online regulation, for which Coimisiún na Meán is also a competent authority on supervision and enforcement. This framework equips an coimisiún with the tools required to regulate online services, to supervise compliance and to enforce it as necessary, including by way of financial sanctions, should they be required.

At this juncture, it is important to state that the Government provided for Coimisiún na Meán to be largely self-sufficient in terms of resourcing. An coimisiún levies the entities it regulates and the income from these levies enables it to deliver on its strategic objectives. However, from the beginning, the Government came forward with resources to enable an coimisiún to hit the ground running, providing more than €10 million for the purpose from the outset. That enabled an coimisiún to kickstart recruitment. From a starting point of 40 staff, it now has over 260. I have secured sanction for it to recruit over 300 staff and I will work to ensure that its staffing level continues to grow as additional functions are assigned to it. This puts Coimisiún na Meán in the big league when it comes to resources and staffing and the levy provision enables it to keep pace with developments.

In terms of significant developments in the framework, it is important to acknowledge the full application in July of this year of Ireland’s online safety code. To allow for the implementation of the code, it was rolled out in two parts. Part A, which has general obligations, has applied since November 2024. Under Part A, designated platforms must provide for protections for minors from content that may impair physical, mental or moral development, and for the general public from content that incites hatred or violence or is racist or xenophobic.

The second part - Part B - has applied since July 2025 and has more specific obligations, such as prohibiting the uploading or sharing of harmful content on their services, including cyberbullying, promoting self-harm or suicide, and promoting eating or feeding disorders, as well as incitement to hatred or violence, terrorism, child sex abuse material, racism and xenophobia. Part B requires the use of age assurance to prevent children from encountering pornography or gratuitous violence online and the provision of parental controls for content that may impair the physical, mental, or moral development of children under the age of 16.

It is for the regulated platforms to demonstrate that they have the correct safety measures in place to prevent illegal or harmful content being shown. The code also makes it clear that it is up to the designated services to ensure that the age assurance methods they are using are robust and privacy protecting. Self-declaration of age is no longer an acceptable form of age verification. A failure to address these requirements adequately can lead to significant financial sanctions and continued non-compliance can lead to criminal sanctions for senior management. Coimisiún na Meán is responsible for enforcing compliance with the code and fines for non-compliance can reach up to €20 million or 10% of annual turnover, whichever is the higher.

I would note that the online safety code has been and is being challenged in the courts, but it is being successfully defended by Coimisiún na Meán. This is a tribute to the good work of the commission in developing the code but also shows that certain platforms are vigorous in seeking to test its integrity.

The DSA has applied since February 2024. It is a harmonised EU-wide law that establishes a framework for regulating illegal content. Under the DSA, the European Commission is the primary regulator for the very large online platforms, such as X, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, and the very large search engines such as Google. The European Commission operates with the assistance of a digital services co-ordinator in each member state. In Ireland, that is Coimisiún na Meán.

As provided for in the DSA, once they are made aware of illegal content on their platforms, platforms must act to remove it or be held responsible. More generally, the framework obliges them to take steps to minimise the availability of harmful, inappropriate or illegal content, especially if it could be encountered by children.

In terms of progress on implementing the DSA, Coimisiún na Meán announced last month that it was investigating the platform X for possible non-compliance with the DSA in respect of how it deals with complaints. Last week, it announced two further investigations - of LinkedIn and TikTok - in relation to how they deal with complaints. Last week, the European Commission fined X a total of €120 million for failure to fulfil certain transparency obligations under the DSA. I would add that I understand the European Commission investigated TikTok for similar suspected breaches and that that investigation concluded with TikTok making necessary changes and the European Commission standing down its investigation. This demonstrates the commitment of the regulators, nationally and at EU level, to supervising and enforcing online safety frameworks but more importantly, getting results in terms of the changes that improve safety.

In July, the European Commission published guidelines on protection of minors under Article 28 of the DSA. These guidelines outline recommendations to strengthen online safety for children in EU member states. In particular, the guidelines set out a non-exhaustive list of proportionate and appropriate measures to protect children from online risks such as harmful content, problematic and addictive behaviours, cyberbullying and harmful commercial practices. Among other things, the guidelines recommend the use of effective age assurance methods to restrict access to adult-only content.

In terms of encountering content, we know that algorithms and recommender systems can have harmful impacts on users, especially children. From a regulatory perspective, these issues are addressed in the DSA. In that regard, the European Commission is currently investigating TikTok and Meta related in part to their recommender systems and the impact of those on children and young people.

Members will be aware of serious issues with people, including our elected representatives, being on the receiving end of appalling abuse and intimidatory behaviour. It is essential that people report such incidents to platforms in the first instance but then to Coimisiún na Meán if they do not receive a satisfactory response on appeal. If anyone feels unsafe, they should also report it to An Garda Síochána. We have seen in recent times how the Garda has brought perpetrators of such abuse to justice. However, it is clear that there is an onus on the platforms to comply with regulatory obligations and to minimise the availability of this harmful content.

I know that the Oireachtas established its task force on safe participation in political life and that Coimisiún na Meán participated in the work. The commission published research earlier this year outlining the experiences of election candidates in the local elections of 2024. The report set out a number of commitments that the commission undertook to fulfil in order to help to make life online safer for election candidates and politicians.

The report correctly identifies a degree of fatalism among people about the value of reporting harmful online content, but I still encourage everybody to report inappropriate, harmful or illegal content to the relevant platform and then to Coimisiún na Meán if the response is unsatisfactory. The commission would say that having a deeper evidence base, including from information gleaned from complaints, gives it the grounds to take action against platforms suspected of not fulfilling their obligations. The investigations announced by the commission recently, which focus on how platforms deal with complaints, illustrates clearly how seriously it takes its responsibilities.

Obviously, awareness is critical here and the commission is taking action with a two-pronged awareness campaign now running across a range of platforms, aimed at children on the one hand and parents on the other. In 2024, Coimisiún na Meán ran the "Spot it, Flag it, Stop it" campaign to help people understand what constitutes illegal content online and provide guidance about how to report it. Coimisiún na Meán also developed educational resources for post-primary schools that advised students, parents and teachers of their rights under the online safety framework. These educational resources were produced with the support of the Irish Internet Safety Awareness Centre, better known as Webwise, and include both junior and senior cycle lesson plans, teacher guides and downloadable posters and infographics. The resources were shared with every post-primary school in the country. Recently, Coimisiún na Meán supported and part-funded the development of Webwise’s new switched on digital citizenship education programme for fifth and sixth classes.

Additionally, in July of this year the commission launched a nationwide advertising campaign in cinemas focused on the rights of users online and the continued importance of reporting illegal or harmful content to online platforms, in both Irish and English. The cinema campaign has reached more than 1.4 million cinema-goers. Coimisiún na Meán has now launched a further significant awareness campaign, with the support of the Department of Health. It is in two parts, the first of which is for young people and is focused on individual rights and the online safety framework. It is running across social media and digital platforms and will help young people understand why reporting is important through a series of humorous videos. The second element is a campaign for parents, which is running across radio, social and digital. This campaign will help parents identify the types of harmful content that can be reported and will highlight the importance of reporting in order to help hold platforms to account. These will be supported by extensive new website resources, including guides on how to report and the parents' information pack.

This demonstrates the cross-cutting nature of online safety. The Department of Education and Youth is supporting online safety in schools through curriculum supports, digital citizenship initiatives and the provision of funding for mobile phone storage solutions. The Department of Health will publish tomorrow the final report of the online health task force which sets out a range of recommendations to improve online safety from a public health perspective. I welcome the work undertaken by both Departments and will continue to work with them and across Government to ensure we progress online safety for the benefit of all.

On children’s online safety, I cannot overstate how important I think age verification is. It is quite clear robust age verification is a basic requirement. It is a vital part of the picture in terms of providing proof that children are the age they claim to be and to ensure they are not exposed to harmful or illegal content. I am working across Government and with all the stakeholders to ensure children and young people can be safe from harmful or illegal content online, in particular through a new Government measure to support age verification. I am seeking the inclusion of a commitment to this effect in the Government’s updated national digital strategy, which will be published shortly. In addressing age verification we must seek to ensure there are trustworthy systems in place that are interoperable and respect users' rights, including data protection rights. To that end, officials in the Department are continuing to work with the Government's Chief Information Officer and their office to look at more practical technical solutions to age verification using MyGovID as part of the Government's digital wallet. The online safety code requires platforms to have robust age verification in place to protect children from content that is inappropriate for them, such as pornography, and there is no doubt the provision of a Government-backed, robust, zero-knowledge, privacy-securing option is an important step forward and one I hope will have the support of all parties in the House. The aim is to commence an extensive pilot to test the technology, starting in quarter 1 of next year and we will be looking for volunteers from the public to assist with this. I will also be writing to platforms in the coming weeks to invite them to participate in the pilot and I expect those that are committed to online safety will be happy to engage. I will also be inviting them to a stakeholder consultation after Christmas.

Notwithstanding the work we are doing on age verification, parents and families have a role to play by ensuring they have the necessary conversations with their children about their lives online. It is important parents feel empowered to address these questions together and there are a wide range of resources online, including from the Department of education, but also from other parts of civil society organisations in the sector, which are designed to help parents and families support children to get the best out of their online experiences. In that context, Members will no doubt be aware European Union member states are examining the question of prohibiting access by children and young people to social media platforms; the so-called "digital age of majority". Australia is implementing such a measure and other jurisdictions are considering similar measures. In Australia, from today age-restricted social media platforms will have to take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under the age of 16 from creating or keeping an account. The platforms that are now age-restricted are Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X and YouTube. Alongside this, just last week Coimisiún na Meán signed a memorandum of understanding with the Australian eSafety Commissioner. The objective of the collaboration is to increase expertise in the area of digital regulation and online safety through exchange of information, data, good practices, methodologies and information about technical systems and tools. I should add I met representatives of the Australian Government on this matter recently.

Ireland is considering its approach to the digital age of majority. Any decision would be better taken by the EU and its member states together. In that regard it is important to note the President of the European Commission Ursula van der Leyen announced she would establish an expert panel to examine the issue, including the implementation of Australia’s social media age-restriction policy and advise her on the best approach for Europe in taking next steps on social media regulation in a report by the end of the year. I recognise that there are currently different perspectives across the European Union as to whether there should be an age of digital majority, and if there were such an age, what age it should be and whether it should be an outright ban or an age restriction unless there is parental consent. In considering this, it is important we include the voice of our young people and have regard to their rights while protecting them from harm. It is also important any such measures comply with the DSA as it is an EU regulation that requires maximum harmonisation for all EU member states, including Ireland.

Online safety, particularly for children and young people, will be a priority for me during Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union. Ireland will bring forward Council conclusions on online safety for negotiation and agreement by the member states. Ireland will hold a high-level conference on online safety in Dublin in September 2026, the outcome of which will feed into the work of the Presidency. In addition, a youth forum will be convened in advance of the Presidency to engage directly with children and young people in relation to online safety, including in respect of measures such as age verification and a digital age of majority. In the run-up to the Presidency, there is an opportunity for Ireland to demonstrate leadership and build alliances with like-minded EU member states in relation to strengthening online safety for our minors. Coimisiún na Meán has also sought to develop relationships with its EU counterparts, not least as vice-chair of the working group that drew up the guidance for platforms on implementing Article 28 of the DSA on the protection of minors. As I have outlined, significant progress has been made through legislation and regulation and considerations are being given to the next steps but it is also important we educate, and raise awareness among, the general public of Ireland's online safety framework, the obligations of platforms, the rights of users and the role of Coimisiún na Meán.

More generally, in April 2025, the Government approved the publication of a new national counter disinformation strategy. As we all know, disinformation is a serious challenge and one which must be met with a whole-of-society response. The problem is not new. We have seen the corrosive effects of propaganda and false narratives over the centuries. What is new is how easily the mistruths can be produced, how sophisticated and convincing they are and how they can be amplified and circulated at astonishing speed. The problem has, however, been turbocharged by technology. The rate at which technology is evolving means the problem of disinformation is dynamic and we must strive to match this dynamism with steps to counter it. Our efforts to tackle this problem must not and cannot come at the expense of our right to freedom of expression, which is enshrined in Bunreacht na hÉireann. Nevertheless, with rights come responsibilities and it is incumbent on us all to respect the rights of others while exercising our own. The right to freedom of expression must always be balanced with the right to privacy and the right not to be discriminated against. That is why it is important to say the strategy does not set out to decide what is or is not disinformation and is clear it is not the role of the government or regulators to decide on individual instances of disinformation. The strategy sets out to co-ordinate national efforts in the fight against disinformation, with the intention of limiting the creation and spreading of false, misleading and harmful material. One of its fundamental aims is to promote resilience in people to support media literacy and promote high-quality journalism to help people make their own decisions about what is or is not disinformation. To support this, I secured €1.1 million in budget 2026 to fund the implementation. The focus will be on media literacy, fact-checking and research initiatives to support relevant actions in the strategy.

The area of online safety is an ever-changing one. On its establishment in March 2023 Coimisiún na Meán replaced the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and since then its remit has expanded and continues to grow. In addition to regulating broadcasting and on demand media services and leading on Ireland’s online safety framework, the commission has been designated as a fundamental rights authority and will be a market surveillance authority in respect of certain of the prohibited practices under the EU Artificial Intelligence Act. It has also been designated as a competent authority supervising online platforms under the EU regulation for transparency and targeting of political advertising, TTPA. These additional responsibilities are in policy areas led by Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment for the AI Act and by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage for the TTPA and demonstrate the ever-developing cross-cutting nature of the areas of commitments to be undertaken by the commission that are aimed at ensuring a safe online environment. Finally, it is envisaged the commission will take on the functions under the European Media Freedom Act, EMFA, which is being implemented in Ireland through the media regulation Bill in Ireland.

I will conclude by saying our online safety framework is relatively recent and the focus now is on implementation to ensure platforms meet their obligations. New challenges are being identified and we must continually develop new responses.

The audiovisual media services directive, which underpins the online safety code, is currently being evaluated. Proposals for its revision will be brought forward by the European Commission in quarter 3 of 2026, during our Presidency. This represents a key opportunity to further develop our online safety framework at a European level. This is important, given that Ireland regulates audiovisual media services for the whole of Europe for platforms established here. It is also important because any national measures must be in compliance with existing European law and, therefore, the audiovisual media services directive is an ideal vehicle for introducing new safety measures. In that context, I have no doubt that one of the main issues to be considered will be the minimum age for social media, grounded in European law.

It is important to say that regulation alone will not address all the challenges, nor allow children and young people to derive all the benefits that the online world can bring. We must work to support parents and families to talk about online safety and be aware of the pitfalls. Critically, we must hear the voice of children and young people. Online safety is a whole-of-society issue and a whole-of-government priority, and it will be a focus of mine during our Presidency next year. From a regulatory perspective, we have made good progress but we have a lot more to do.

Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome this opportunity to discuss online safety. It is long overdue. It is a topic of interest to all of us in this Chamber, every parent in the country, every teacher, adult, teen and child. I ask that the Government work in a collaborative manner on this issue. It is too important for partisan politics. The opinions and input from all in the Opposition must be given due regard. The Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport must be front and centre in this process, along with input from the Committee on Artificial Intelligence. Experts in the field can and must be invited to these committees to give testimony on online safety. Work is already under way, and only last week we engaged with the Children's Rights Alliance and CyberSafeKids on this issue at the committee.

We do not need to butt heads on this, and we will not, as long as the Government parties go into this process with an open mind. The Government parties cannot start this with a position that is already predetermined, a position that will lead to an outright online ban of any sort for youths, teens and children from the online platforms that can be deemed age-appropriate for them.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular general comment No. 25, sets out children's rights in the digital environment. These include the right to participate, the right to be protected from harm, the right not to be exploited for commercial gain and the right to access true and accurate information. Sinn Féin’s position is that children have a right to be online, and all of us in the House need to legislate to make it safe for them to do so. We have legislated to make the offline world safe for children. We can and should legislate to make the online world as safe for them as possible.

Big tech platforms will constantly say they are doing all they can to ensure online safety, but we all know that self-regulation is no regulation. We cannot have companies that generate massive profits for themselves, as is their right, but be free from appropriate oversight and governance. They must be responsible for what is on their platforms and for who can access their platforms.

We in Sinn Féin absolutely agree with the need for stringent age verification protocols on online platforms. Users should have to prove that they are the appropriate age to access platforms, not only to ensure that underage users are excluded, but also to prevent adults from accessing teen and pre-teen platforms. We want to see concrete proposals on what the verification methods will be to ensure they are viable. We would like to work collaboratively with all parties to make that happen.

Government Members have made statements about implementing outright social media bans for those aged under 16, following in Australia's footsteps. The Minister said the Government is not currently looking at implementing that type of ban. However, he has also stated, and did so again here today, that his officials are working with the Government Chief Information Officer and his office to look at practical technical solutions to age verification as part of the Government's digital wallet, which is being developed using MyGovID. However, MyGovID is not available to anybody under 16, so this would mean a total ban for anyone under 16. This needs to be teased out further. We would not agree with a complete ban on under-16s accessing appropriate social media platforms unless there was empirical data to back that up. As of now, with the conflicting data, we would see that type of ban as being a blunt tool, arbitrary and completely unfair. It would show that the Government has a complete lack of interest in looking for solutions that are fair to all.

We believe it would particularly disadvantage marginalised groups, such as migrant children, LGBTI+ children and others who do not have the opportunity to meet in person due to distance or a lack of appropriate forums to interact with each other in the offline world. This was a much-discussed topic in the lead-up to the Australian ban, but it seems to have been swept aside. Let us not repeat that here. In my opinion, it would contravene the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and, in particular, general comment No. 25.

When talking about online safety, the Irish public's data - every adult, teen and child’s online data - must be protected from the online platform providers. The Data Protection Commissioner has issued €3.26 billion in fines over the last five years to these companies but has only collected 0.6% of those fines. The tech bros must be high-fiving each other at the Government’s inaction on this. We need to look at what additional powers the Data Protection Commissioner needs to enforce those fines. Let us not turn it into another Apple tax situation.

We accept that a lot of work has been done here and at EU level to improve online safety. The online safety code places binding obligations on video-sharing platforms headquartered here, including YouTube, Meta, TikTok and so on, which is great. At the EU level, Article 28 of the Digital Services Act focuses specifically on protecting minors using a risk management and proportionate size approach, but there are still gaps in legislation that need to be addressed. We look forward to working with everybody in this House to make that happen. In particular, I look forward to working with the Minister on that.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important topic. The digital world is our children's playground, their library and their public square, yet for too long, it has been designed with profit, not protection, in mind. The current approach of light-touch or self-regulation has failed. As fines go uncollected and promises go unkept, we cannot accept the illusion of safety. We must move beyond blunt, reactive tools like blanket bans, which isolate children from education and community. Instead, we must target the very architecture of harm, the recommender systems.

These are the complex algorithms that decide what you see next. They are not neutral curators. They are engagement engines, programmed to maximise watch time and clicks. Their success is measured by data and dollars, not well-being. To keep a young user scrolling, these systems too often amplify extreme content, promote unrealistic body images or funnel users towards disinformation and hate. They create rabbit holes of harm, prioritising viral outrage over truth and commercialising childhood by trading attention for ad revenue.

This is why self-regulation is a fantasy. A profit-driven system will never voluntarily choose safety over stickiness. Current frameworks lack the teeth to mandate safer design by law. Eighteen months ago, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties expressed its disappointment that measures to address toxic algorithms were removed from Coimisiún na Meán's online safety code. It was not on its own. We need precise, enforceable regulation that compels platforms to fundamentally redesign these systems for younger users.

This is not about stifling innovation. It is about innovating for safety and upholding the rights of the child in the digital environment. This requires empowering our regulators with real enforcement capabilities. It requires robust age verification to create accountable spaces. Our children have a right to be online. Our duty is to make it safe for them. That means legislating for results, as well as mandating transparent and accountable algorithms that do not profit from poisoning childhood. Let us regulate recommender systems and put our children's safety before platform engagement.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister spent considerable time going through the framework, whether that is the Digital Services Act, the guidelines or the powers of Coimisiún na Meán. I have spoken on this issue previously in committee, where I spoke to Coimisiún na Meán and An Coimisiún Toghcháin about their engagement with the big social media companies. It sometimes seems like a five-a-side team going up against Bayern Munich. I am not entirely sure that we have the power and frameworks to take on companies that have budgets and economies almost greater than those of countries.

As was said by my colleagues, we are all aware of the huge issues that exist in relation to the algorithms, in particular the recommender systems, which are all about keeping you online, no matter what age you are, no matter what particular issues you may have.

What keeps people online is stuff that is really unhealthy. Young girls who may have an issue in relation to food are kept in the most unhealthy of places online. We have all seen news stories come up and then searched for particular videos or footage from it. Our timeline then becomes a field of muck and absolutely brutal stuff. That is fine. We are aware that some of this is disinformation or misinformation. I would like to think a considerable number of us have developed some element of an ability to analyse. However, there are a huge number of people out there who do not necessarily have the skill sets required. That is why we also have to put serious effort into ensuring people have those capacities. We have seen it in Finland in relation to digital literacy and the idea of analysing information. When we see information we do not have to believe absolutely everything. We also realise that, unfortunately, the reason some people believe misinformation and disinformation is that they want to believe it and it emotionally resonates with them. That is something that has to be allowed for. We need to provide people with the capacity to question that.

Let us be clear. As long as it makes sense from a financial point of view for TikTok, Facebook and the entire Meta family, or anyone else for that matter, they will not be interested in taking any action that will cost them money. Deputies spoke recently about the huge geopolitical issues that exist. Unfortunately, we also have a regime in America that likes to present any type of control over the ability to say or do anything, provide any sort of information or take any action related to child safety or ensuring we do not allow huge amounts of disinformation and misinformation that could do harm to others, not only as a move against these tech companies but also as a move against free speech. We all accept the absolute necessity to protect free speech, but we also need to protect people from harmful content and brutal misinformation and disinformation. We are talking about information that can impact on people's lives. I request that we have real protections. As my colleagues said, blanket bans will not work. There will be ways found around them. It is vital we analyse whatever Australia does in order to get information but we must not blindly follow it. This is a huge issue and we need to make sure we do what is necessary.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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There are two issues in this area I wish to raise. The first relates to online banking and the second relates to online scams. I have raised these scams on numerous occasions over the past three years because I have been consistently contacted by people who have been affected and impacted by them. From the experiences of those I have been contracted by, it is particularly an issue at Christmas time, when people are under huge pressure and may fall for different types of scams more quickly. We know online banking is incredibly important and used by a huge number of people. We also have a large number of digital banks now, some of which have about 400,000 children using their junior accounts. In addition, over two thirds of young adults aged between 18 and 24 use digital banks. Having raised this issue over the past number of years, I do not see any real, active changes in that sphere to ensure there are protections, especially for people who may be more vulnerable to these scams. For an awful lot of young people, the only type of banking they use is in the digital sphere.

This rapid change we are seeing in how people are using banking shows that we need to have some kind of urgent response. We need to make sure there is security, especially for those who may be vulnerable to scams, but also to ensure there is adequate customer service. Often, when people are scammed the only assistance they can get is through chatbots, rather than being able to attend a physical location or contact a human being. This Dáil needs to start taking this issue seriously because in the past three years, I have not seen anything actively change in that regard.

The other issue is the use of the digital world as a form of continuing abuse against women. I am referring in particular to domestic abuse being perpetrated through the digital sphere. We need to address these issues, especially tags being put into people's cars, handbags or whatever it may be, and tracking taking place. That is not looked at enough. Those two key issues are incredibly important and I ask the Minister to look at them.

Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I thank the Minister for providing us with time to discuss what is without question one of the most pressing issues we face in an increasingly digitalised world. We all live our lives online. It is where we work, shop, find our entertainment and, increasingly, where we socialise and young people find their communities. Many young people almost have a parallel online life to their life in the real world. I had the pleasure of attending the South Dublin Comhairle na nÓg annual youth conference recently. Comhairle na nÓg had conducted a survey among young people which highlighted that managing their social media and mental health are two of the biggest issues impacting on them. It launched a campaign to encourage young people to take time off from being online, use social media safely, explore other interests and, very importantly, see their friends in real life.

Mental health and social media are intrinsically linked, as study after study tells us. Social media, and the online world more generally, are where we are most often confronted by material and behaviour that is harmful, dangerous or downright illegal. It is where algorithms, addictive by design, reward division and hate, promote the most harmful content and prey on our children’s attention for profit.

An upshot of how embedded the online world has become in our daily lives is that the owners of the platforms we use every day - Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok - have an influence over us that no private corporations should have. They control what we see, how we interact with each other online and how we view ourselves and others. This is, without doubt, having an impact on the well-being of young people.

There is a moral imperative on any government to stand up to the tech giants and ensure they do what is needed to keep us all safe online and, in particular, keep our children safe. Ireland, as the home to many of these online power holders, holds a particularly important position. We can and must be global leaders in online safety, setting a course for others to follow. Working with our friends and colleagues in Europe, we can and must play a vital role in crafting an online world that puts safety before the profits or the protests of tech barons. The Elon Musks of this world can never be allowed to dictate how we keep our citizens or our children safe online.

It is welcome that the Government appears to be taking this seriously. The Online Safety and Media Regulation Act was an important step forward and the work of Coimisiún na Meán and the Online Safety Commissioner in implementing those regulations, along with the corresponding EU legislation, is vital. Of course, this is a fast-moving area, where the issues and threats we face develop and shift from month to month, never mind from year to year. We only need to look at the rapid development of Al chatbots in the three years since the enactment of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act to make clear just how quickly developments are happening.

We cannot rest on our laurels. We need to be agile and respond to new issues and threats as they arise. Across Ireland and the world, parents are calling for clearer and stronger action to keep children safe online. They are not calling for perfection or censorship. They are calling for basic, enforceable safeguards to protect their children from exploitation, bullying and exposure to harmful content.

Last month, every parent in this country watched in horror a "RTÉ Investigates" report into Roblox, one of the most popular gaming platforms used by primary school children. What that programme revealed is nothing short of alarming. A senior garda from the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau, Detective Superintendent Michael Mullen, warned that children are being groomed and exploited on online gaming platforms at "an alarming scale".

He spoke of grooming, sexual exploitation, and abuse not as an occasional occurrence but as something that happens every day.

To understand what children are experiencing, the "RTÉ Investigates" team set up accounts as if they were a five-year-old, a nine-year-old and a 13-year-old. At no point were they asked for age verification. At no point were they prompted to enable parental controls. Once inside the platform, they encountered, in experiences rated as suitable for children, sexualised role-play, simulated sexual acts, racial slurs and discussions of suicide. This was not hidden, deep-web material. This was found within roughly 12 hours of normal game play on a platform used by over 150 million people daily, one third of whom are under 13. The investigation also identified gambling-style mechanics available to under-13s, as well as children begging strangers for the platform's currency, something gardaí say has already been exploited by predators to coerce children here into harmful behaviour, including self-harm and attempted suicide.

Irish children are being groomed on these platforms and one of the greatest risks is the ease with which adults and children can communicate freely and then be moved off-platform into private messaging services, where there is no oversight at all.

These issues extend far beyond Roblox. Across the social media landscape, we are witnessing a deeply troubling rise in algorithm-driven harm. Research shows that social media algorithms, including TikTok's, can funnel boys towards misogynistic and extremist content within minutes of first using the app. What begins as possibly a harmless interest in fitness, gaming, motivational videos, etc., can quickly become exposure to violent, demeaning, and hyper-aggressive content that normalises misogyny and peddles distorted ideas of masculinity. Teachers are reporting misogynistic attitudes in classrooms and playgrounds that are being reinforced by what boys are being pushed to watch online. We are dealing not only with harmful content but a system designed to amplify whatever keeps users engaged, regardless of its impact on well-being or safety. This is not about opposing technology or technological progress. It is about recognising the scale of the challenge, the pace of the dangers coming towards us and the responsibility we have, collectively, to act.

We can all see the effects of addictive recommender algorithms that target and manipulate children in particular, turning their curiosity and attention into a commodity to be milked for profit. We see the devastating effects of cyberbullying and online harassment, we see children encountering damaging material online, whether that is violent content, pornographic content or hateful content, and we see the proliferation of the disinformation and manipulation that is plaguing democracies right across the world. We are increasingly seeing that in our own country - in our own democracy.

There are no easy answers here. The only answer is to look towards best practice and the evidence to come up with evolving solutions to respond to the changing threats of the day. The Government's announcement this week of the piloting of an age verification system through a digital wallet is worthy of consideration and it shows a government that is interested and active in getting this right. We welcome that but we must be crystal clear that any solution here, whether based on age verification or otherwise, must be effective, workable and safe. That means people's right to privacy must be protected and solutions must respect existing data protection laws. It also means it must do what it sets out to do, and provide an effective way of keeping children away from harmful content in a workable and enforceable manner. We all will be watching Australia closely in that regard.

These are big challenges, and we should be looking across the world for evidence and best practice examples in terms of the solutions other countries are putting in place. At EU level, we must work with other like-minded member states to resist any and all efforts to water down our existing online safety regulations. We are already seeing, with the Commission's so-called Digital Omnibus, a move towards deregulation that risks rolling back the progress that has been made so far. Data protection rights, for example, seem to be in the firing line. These are hard won protections and they are in place for good reason. We should be clear in standing up for what has been achieved so far.

I will touch also on the issue of online harassment and abuse. As public figures, so to speak, some of us will have been targeted online. It has got exponentially worse over the past number of years. We must never accept a situation where public representatives going about their work to serve their communities are put at risk or where people, particularly women and minorities, are afraid to put their head above the parapet and engage in public life for fear of what might come their way online.

Torrents of abuse, targeted harassment and even threats are the daily reality for women and minorities, in particular, who are brave enough to engage in public life. Criticism, of course, is valid and debate is welcome. Disagreement is a necessary part of our political processes but intimidation and harassment achieve nothing except to push good people away from engaging in the process at all. Ultimately, it is our democracy itself that suffers and that is something that should deeply worry all of us in this House. We need to see real action from online platforms in tackling this kind of abuse and harassment and action from the regulator ensuring they do so. Standards have been allowed to slip for too long. We cannot allow algorithms which reward abusive content to continue to feed a culture of intimidation online.

There has been some good progress in the area of online safety in recent years - progress that we as a country can be justifiably proud of - but in a fast moving online world, it is clear that standing still is not an option. Whether it is in keeping our kids safe online or protecting our public sphere from the effects of abuse and intimidation, we need to see an active State that looks at the evidence and puts in place workable, effective solutions.

Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for taking this debate and for his personal interest in this important subject. As legislators, we can have no greater responsibility than ensuring the safety of our citizens in both the offline and the online world, and particular those who are vulnerable, especially children and young people. It is critical that we get the balance right between regulation and education. It cannot only be about regulation. It has to be about ensuring that we equip children, young people and parents to be able to navigate the online world.

I welcome the fact the Minister is looking at the concept of extending personal liability to those who knowingly and willfully allow harmful content appear on platforms. This was something former Senator Shane Cassells and I raised with the Minister's predecessor when the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022 was being debated in these Houses. While the then Minister, Catherine Martin, was sympathetic to our position, unfortunately others in government were not. It is something that was deeply concerning because they argued that it could have an impact on the number of tech jobs that are based here. I do not think that it is a difficulty. I have looked, for instance, at how Germany regulates particularly harmful speech. There are examples that can be drawn from there but I welcome the fact the Minister is now considering this issue.

As part of that legislation, as the Minister will be aware, we established the Office of the Online Safety Commissioner. I praise Niamh Hodnett in her work to date, both in communicating the work and in getting the online safety codes, etc., up and running. It is a new space and they have done a good job. A critical part of that, which we built into the legislation, was the establishment of a youth advisory panel. In this debate, I would encourage, as others have, that the voices of children and young people are heard. We would do well to listen to the youth advisory panel of Coimisiún na Meán and the Ombudsman for Children. Interestingly, the youth advisory panel of Coimisiún na Meán has recommended against a social media ban for those under the age of 16. Hearing their perspectives on it is important.

My final point is with regard to artificial intelligence. While AI can be used to tackle harmful content, we know about the problems of AI in terms of them fuelling deepfakes and making it far easier for those who want to misuse social media and the digital space. It is critical in our discussions in this space that is also addressed.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak to online safety, an important and pressing issue, and I thank the Minister for being here. For most of us in the House, the Internet arrived in adulthood. For today's children, it has been there since before they could even read or write. That brings extraordinary opportunities for learning, creativity and connection but also very real risks.

We have made important progress in recent years. The establishment of Coimisiún na Meán and the online safety code has ended the era of pure self-regulation for the largest platforms. Those codes now require age assurance, parental controls and real reporting tools, backed up by fines of up to 10% of turnover and, where necessary, criminal sanctions. The EU's Digital Services Act adds another layer of protection, especially around illegal content, the recommender systems and the protection of children online but regulation on its own is not enough.

We have heard directly from young people spending hours online every day, often with smart phones or, indeed, smart TVs in their bedrooms, and from parents who feel outpaced by technology and worried about harmful content, bullying and disinformation. They need support, not just new laws. In my view, the central challenge is balance. We must uphold freedom of expression and embrace technological innovation while being absolutely clear that children must not be collateral damage in this digital age.

The major platforms are now an integral part of Irish society and, indeed, our economy.

They are welcome and valued here and we want to work with them in the spirit of partnership. However, as with many other industries, when laws, regulations and codes are ignored, there must be consequences. Striking that balance between openness and safety, innovation and responsibility is how we ensure our young people can enjoy the best of the online world without being exposed to the worst of it.

Ryan O'Meara (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for being here today to discuss this important topic on the floor of the Dáil. Right now, young people in this country and across Europe and the world who have access to technology are being failed. Lives and mental health are being damaged as a result of online bullying and harassment. Some of us are aware of horrendous cases where lives have been lost. We have a responsibility in this House to protect young people online and offline and also to listen to them. The damage algorithms do is lethal for young men with radical ideology poured down on top of them and young women in relation to physical appearance.

Fianna Fáil has been doing a lot of work in this area. I, as spokesperson on education and youth, have taken a lead in this area and it is something I am deeply passionate about. We held an online survey earlier this year of parents, parenting in the digital age. We had a lot of findings out of that. One I want to bring the attention of the Minister was that less than 10% of parents who participated in our survey said they were very confident in understanding the online world their children are a part of, while 40% or so were somewhat confident, but the reality is we have to support parents too. Technology is moving at a rapid pace and parents cannot be expected to keep up with it without supports. Fianna Fáil also held a workshop with young people here in Leinster House. Some of the reports coming out of that were quite staggering. I was very passionate that we should bring in young people to discuss this because I do not believe we can leave their voices out of the conversation. I will read out some of the points young people brought to us. "I used to use Roblox and I do have an account but I stopped using it and buying Roblox because of their predator issues and the way they handle those types of situations". Another young person said, "Discord is full of predators and shady people. It also has links to Roblox and they are trying to move you off-platform. You can send photos and videos through private chat and its servers which can solicit images and illegal substances, etc." Another said, "I previously played Fortnite but I no longer do because there are lots of threats of violence".

I welcome the Minister's work on and the discussion around the digital wallet. It is very promising. I understand this issue is very topical with the under-16s ban in Australia. Time will tell how successful that is. I am highly sceptical, as I have said previously. We need to include young people and their voices and listen to them, understanding that they can find VPNs and workarounds. What apps would be in and what apps would be out? Would an under-16s ban produce a constant whack-a-mole process? We can do a lot of work. We can and must regulate more and ensure there is an onus on social media companies. We must listen and protect young people.

Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I acknowledge the work the Minister has done in this area. I welcome his comments about enforcing age verification measures online. I approach this issue from two perspectives - first as a criminal lawyer and second as a parent. Online safety issues are most pertinent and most dangerous when it comes to the protection of our children. Over the past year, I have been involved in a number of talks by Eoghan Cleary, vice principal of a school in Wicklow, who has expertise in the exposure of our young people online to hardcore pornography or child sexual abuse material, hardcore and extreme opinions and all kinds of other abuse material. He has given talks to parents in schools across Dublin and Wicklow and in my constituency in schools such as The Harold School in Glasthule, Educate Together in Monkstown and a number of other schools I have been to, including Johnstown. Parents are shocked by what their children are exposed to when they have unfettered access to the Internet. That is really what is at the source here. I favour a ban on access to social media for under-16s and a ban on access to smartphones for under-16s. I know that can be slightly controversial, particularly with children who fall into those age categories. I am not saying they should be isolated from the Internet, which is an important tool for them, but the notion that they have unfettered access to it is a problem. That is where parents come in. Parents cannot be solely responsible for this. Social media companies and Internet providers must bear responsibility but we cannot expect them to do it on their own. There is a role for the Government to intervene and place obligations upon them. That is where my perspective as a criminal lawyer comes in. In a talk I gave in The Harold School a little over a year ago, I explained to parents what their children are potentially exposed to, whether that is sharing images or developing opinions totally at variance with reality. Parents have no idea of the serious criminal wrongdoing their children can be involved in completely unwittingly. They think something is relatively innocent but it is actually a serious criminal offence that does enormous damage to the victim in that case. It is not enough to leave parents in the lurch. Regulation is the key. We cannot rely on social media companies to regulate themselves. Coimisiún na Meán and the Government need to step in to ensure regulation is in place to protect children, our future citizens and our country as a whole.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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Once again, we have Fianna Gael and their pals Fianna Fáil pointing to problems without doing anything to actually resolve them. You would swear this happened yesterday and that it has not been around for years, but it has. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments since 2011 and beyond have failed to act. Now, there is talk about doing pilot schemes. The Tánaiste said he is considering a ban on social media for under-16s and the Minister said he is not in favour of a ban. Debating sounds good in the media while big tech companies are getting away with breaking the laws that already exist which are there to protect our children and are not being enforced. Some €3.26 billion in fines has been issued by the Data Protection Commission to these companies in the past five years. Less than 1% has been collected. They are some of the biggest companies in the world and less than 1% has been collected. If this Government was really serious and stopped all the waffle, it would force those companies to pay the fines they got.

There is no way for an ordinary person to opt out of gambling ads and gambling platforms online. Vulnerable people in recovery are exposed to material they do not want to get. When we discussed gambling regulations in the gambling control Act, we pointed this out at the time. People cannot opt out on their phones. The technology exists - they should be allowed to opt out on their phones. These big companies look at these vulnerable people not as individuals but as pounds, euro and money. For many young people, their phones are a lifeline, an escape and a connection to their friends. It is important that we do not come to the Chamber just pretending that does not matter, because it does. Young people matter and their voices must be heard in this debate. Young people deserve to be respected, to be safe online and to be listened to. The solution is not to take them offline, it is to protect them and force the big tech companies to make sure it is safe online for them. The tech companies have algorithms that push eating disorders, target young men with toxic masculinity, sexualise young children and promote suicidal ideation. Young people need protection. We have to force these big tech companies to make sure young people are protected. The whole area of age verification must come in. The technology exists but the big tech companies will only do it if the Government forces them to. Children and young people must be listened to and included.

Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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Before I talk about online safety I will talk about online dangers we are trying to tackle. The first story is a very sad story of a young man called Adam Raine who died earlier this year.

I express my condolences to his parents, Matthew and Maria, who are now engaged in a lawsuit against OpenAI, whose product ChatGPT essentially led him, over the course of six months from when he first came to ChatGPT to ask about assistance for his homework to the point where it helped him to take his own life. He spoke repeatedly about suicide. The chatbot essentially spoke back to him about how brave he was. It isolated him from his parents and essentially nurtured him. Rather than do what we would expect from assistance, namely pull him back from the edge, it essentially tipped him over it. Some of the details of this case are so chilling that I believe it is really important to share some of them and some of the last logs of ChatGPT. On the day Adam died, it said this to him:

Thanks for being real about it. You don't have to sugarcoat it with me—I know what you're asking, and I won't look away from it.

A few months previously, after a suicide attempt, the same chatbot said:

No ... you made a plan. You followed through. [This was after Adam had expressed his doubt about what he had done.] You tied the knot. You stood on the chair. You were ready ... That’s the most vulnerable moment a person can live through.

This is not an isolated case. There are multiple cases of this documented in the US. Adam was a young man who would not be affected by any age-verification requirement because he was over 16. Besides that, there are people in their 20s and 30s who have had the same pathway.

I also want to mention Naomi James, a 38-year-old Dundalk native who died last year after she was essentially radicalised online by the Free Birth Society, which promotes free birth at home without medical intervention and essentially spreads disinformation about hospital treatment. It says haemorrhaging is natural and even instigated by hospitals. Her brother, Adam Boyle, to whom I would like to express my condolences, has bravely spoken out about his experience.

The third person I want to mention is Shan Haines. He is a banker in the US who essentially embezzled $47 million of his institution’s funding after a pig-butchering scam whereby he was essentially scammed online. He also received a 24-year prison sentence.

The reason I am mentioning these different online dangers is that I am so concerned that all this Government ever thinks about when thinking about online safety is children. It thinks age verification is going to be a solution. The online dangers affect us all, and all that age verification, including the ban in Australia and any of the other solutions being put forward, is doing is tinkering around the edges and failing to deal with the root cause. Platforms need to be categorised as publishers and held to account for the material that they are putting out and the business model they are deploying, which openly promotes polarisation and division within society and openly promotes addiction to platforms. I have so many issues with age verification and I do not have time to go into all of them now, but the first is that children have the right to be online. Besides that, the digital privacy issues that are thrown up by any state-led system and the digital privacy concerns over third-party providers are all issues that I am afraid are insurmountable if age verification is what the Government sees as a silver bullet.

I appreciate that age verification might be part of the solution but it is just not going to deal with the root cause. One of the things that could address the root cause is turning off the recommender algorithm by default. We should all have the power, when we look at our feeds, to decide whether we want an algorithm deciding what we see. Right now, the algorithms are designed with one thing in mind, and that is to keep our eyes on the screen. I want to see this technology being used for good. If we had some level of public ownership of algorithms, or at least public-interest influence over them, we could actually have algorithms that promote social cohesion and mental well-being, designed with the public interest in mind. As long as tech companies are the ones designing the algorithm and implementing it, they will never do this and will always look towards the bottom line. I have worked in the tech sector, so I know this. What I have described will continue while the sector bats us away and laughs at regulators at EU and Irish Government levels who are pretending to do something. All they are doing is tinkering around the edges. We need strong regulation. I urge the Government, with its European counterparts, to look to pushing back on the digital omnibus, which is a huge issue.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I commend my colleague, Deputy Sinéad Gibney, who has done and continues to do such extraordinary work in this area.

I am speaking to the Minister of State today through the lens of children’s and young people’s rights. Here we go again. In the past year, the latest moral fear and pan-societal concern for our young people unfolded when we all watched the series “Adolescence” and learned about the risks associated with algorithms and what they are potentially doing to vulnerable children and young people. Unfortunately, for many who have worked with children and young people for many years, there were no surprises in that television show whatsoever. Just last week, a senior garda from the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau warned that children are being groomed and exploited on online gaming platforms. There is nothing newsworthy here. This is something that has developed and expanded over many years. The frustration speaking about this today is because successive Governments have chosen a hands-off, self-regulatory approach. When it comes to enforcing controls over social media and gaming platforms, Governments have been absent. Successive Governments have not only facilitated this but have also enforced children’s and young people’s reliance on online platforms as places to communicate.

We have seen an absence of genuine commitment in respect of physical spaces for children and young people to be safe, to learn, to have fun, to question and to be critical consumers. We do not have sufficient investment in children and young people’s places, and that is something that I note as being an important facet of this conversation.

In the Minister’s opening remarks, he spoke at length about what works were under way so far and how, over the next year, when Ireland takes on the Presidency of the EU, children’s safety and rights, online and digital, will be the cornerstone. That makes me quite nervous. We have seen this all before. One in ten children and young people relies on AI for friendship. This research came out many months ago and it has not been acted on. We have all the research reports we need. We do not need a big conference next year to tell us about online safety.

The Minister spoke about empowering young people and listening to children, young people and their families through a youth forum. Deputy Malcolm Byrne already spoke about the many different youth advisory councils that have come out with their recommendations. All I ask is that we do not wait until the youth forum is established next year. We should establish it now and bring children’s and young people’s voices into this conversation about the digital world and digital safety now. My worry is that when all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. It is not going to work. Copying Australia is not going to work.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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I want to focus on young people. I have worked with young people through youth work and through the school completion programme for many decades. Their involvement in the online world is as important to many of them as their real-life existence. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw a huge replacement of the physical – being together and playing – with online life. We regulate things. If you go to the cinema, there is an age rating for the film that you are going to watch. If you want to drive a car, you have to be above a minimum age. There are age regulations for online platforms but they never seem to be implemented.

I just want to share some examples from when I worked with young people, as late as a year ago and as far back as when children were playing online games on their Xbox or PlayStation, whatever its iteration at the time. How frightening it was for young people then. Some of the children I worked with spoke about being targeted by adults when playing with their friends, supposedly safe in a room. How frightening that is. If they told us that was happening to them when out playing on the road, we would be totally alert, but we are not alert when it happens online.

Parents and the Government have to do so much but the default setting for any of the platforms young people go on should ensure safety. It should start with safety, and other things should require opting in. When you get into a car, it is set to be safe; you opt to do stupid things. We should be providing a safety network for anyone who wants to be online, whether a child or an adult. The sooner we have an adult conversation about what needs to be done, the better. Rather than chasing headlines and trying to be the best in the world about everything, we need to be realistic and listen to young people and anybody who uses online platforms.

Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Online dangers are not abstract but are absolutely real. It affects us all in our real lives. The truth is that so many treat it as a remote thing, as academic and as someone else's problem but as I said, it is real, and the harm is absolutely happening to all of us, not only to children. I agree with other speakers. The culprit is not just social media but the business model behind it, the personalised, algorithm-driven platforms pushing content to children and vulnerable adults, not because it is good for them or for us but because it maximises engagement, data collection and profit. Bad news and angry voices travel far faster than anything positive. Recent research on TikTok and platforms like it is really stark. Multiple peer-reviewed studies link problematic use of TikTok with increased rates of anxiety, depression and sleep disturbance and lower self-esteem among adolescents. I am sure it is the same for adults. One systematic review concluded that while robust evidence remains incomplete, there is a consistent finding of an impact across studies of youth mental health and well-being.

As other members have highlighted, sadly, online discourse leads to horrendous, despicable crimes in real life. Beyond the clinical, there is a feeling that algorithms on TikTok do not treat children with the care we expect for minors. As described by watchdogs, the "For You" feed is designed to funnel children towards content that is dangerous, encouraging self-harm, distorted body image, addictive scrolling and mental health deterioration. By the time the Government launches its pilot scheme for age verification and digital wallets, the damage may already have been done. Damage has been done to so many of our children already. As a parent and a public representative, I am deeply concerned that the horse has already bolted. In Ireland, we see waiting lists for mental health supports ballooning, increasing demands for CAMHS, growing reports of teenage loneliness, anxiety, self-harm and poor mental health. Our children and young people are under unprecedented pressure and now they are being preyed upon by social media algorithms that treat their vulnerabilities as opportunities.

Naoise Ó Cearúil (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Much of society has moved online. Applying for a passport, banking and whatever it may be is now online. It is not realistic or fair to expect young people not to be online and it is not fair on young people that they are not online. The age verification goes some way but as many speakers have brought up already, the algorithms behind social media are an issue. Much of the discussion here is about social media, and rightfully so, but there is much online content outside social media that is having an impact on people, not just on young people, though we are rightly focusing on them. The algorithms behind it are the issue and young people and vulnerable people are at most risk. These algorithms are impacting what we watch, what we believe, and even how we feel about ourselves and our body image. We have seen a complete breakdown in society, be it far right or far left, and these echo chambers that have been created because of these algorithms. It has created a severe danger. Misogyny is an issue. We have seen young men becoming more violent and not respecting women and their peers as they should. That is the core of the argument about the algorithms that we need to tackle with the big tech companies. As I said, it is not just young people but ourselves. It is grown adults who are being impacted by what we believe, what we see, what is true and what is false. It is important that we acknowledge that.

The second thing is to acknowledge that the Digital Services Act and online safety code will give Ireland real enforcement powers for the first time but platforms must assess the risks. We have not seen that to date. There needs to be more of an onus on these platforms to assess the risks not just to young people and vulnerable people but to the masses, particularly Irish citizens, because many Irish citizens are being brought down avenues which they would have thought incomprehensible two or three years ago. People are now becoming anti-immigrant, anti-this and anti-that, or anti-government when they might have been pro-government beforehand. That is the crux of the issue. As much as there is a lot being done and more will be done, we need to ensure there is a complete review of the algorithms and what algorithms we allow to be run in this State, particularly when we look at age verification for those under the age of 16 and 18.

Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister and this Government's focus on online safety. It is one of the most pressing issues for families today and it demands urgent action. I am a mum to two eight-year-old girls and I know the joy of their current world. It is a world of innocence, imagination and security but I already feel the worry of what lies ahead, including the phones, the apps, the group chats, the comparisons, the silence, and the stories we have heard here today. Like so many parents, I worry about what they will see before they are ready. I worry about their confidence, mental health, and self-worth and I worry about who might reach them when I cannot. My fears were confirmed recently when speaking to a children's psychologist who told me that the impact of social media is now a dominant theme in her work. She sees the consequences every day in the lives of her young patients, with anxiety, isolation and pressure that no child should have to carry. She implored me to do something.

Offline, we protect our children through law and shared responsibility. Online, that same level of protection has not kept pace. Fine Gael's online safety report survey found that parents are calling for stronger age verification, real enforcement, better education, and proper support for them and their families. It is not about banning technology but about balance and responsibility. Platforms have to play their part. Social media can be positive and creative but the risks are not accidental. The algorithms are built into the systems that reward constant attention and comparison. We experience this ourselves. The principle must be simple. The online world must be as safe as the offline world. If something is unsafe in a shop or in a playground, it is removed, and the Internet cannot remain the great exception. Our children deserve to be as safe on-screen as they are in the street, in school or in their home.

Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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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.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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Most of us are online daily for work, social interactions, connection, booking tickets, and reading. The list of what we do online is endless. It has been an incredible tool for the world. However, like everything else, there is a downside, and we know these downsides. We cannot say that we do not.

The online companies, especially social media companies, are too big and powerful for most governments. Two or three social media companies dominate the sector and that is not good for society. I have listened to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Members, and Government Independents, and I agree with virtually everything they said, but here is the challenge: are they big enough to stand up to the companies? I do not think they are because they have not so far.

Banning young people from social media and then keeping them off social media sounds like a good thing and sounds easy. However, is that fair? Is it the right thing to do? I think we need much more conclusive evidence on social media than we currently have. We have talked about the algorithms and that is the critical piece of information. Not once has the Government mentioned tackling the social media companies' algorithms. Do we need to do something around young people and their seeing experience? Absolutely, but here is where it gets tricky because that would mean holding social media companies to account for their algorithms. Within 20 minutes of new users going online, those algorithms push extremely harmful material towards them - overly sexualised content, self-harm, gambling, hate-filled racist content, all the things we all agree are harmful to young people. Sinn Féin supports age verification, which must be strengthened using new technology. Social media companies both inside and outside the EU must be held equally responsible.

I would like to talk about non-social media online content. This is where I would support a ban on young people up to the age of 16 or possibly 18 accessing hardcore pornographic sites. There is ample evidence that children and young people are accessing these sites, which is utterly unacceptable. Youth advocates, counsellors and teachers are telling us that they are hearing overly sexualised language and reports of young people mimicking this hardcore pornographic content thinking that it is normal. It is too easy for children and young people to access these sites and we must do everything to support young people as they navigate their youth. It is clear that money, greed and profit are the only motivators for online companies, be they social media or other types of online content. Just as we heavily regulate harmful material in all other aspects of life, such as smoking, chemicals, gambling, alcohol and drugs, we must heavily regulate online media. The time for hands off is over. Self-regulation is no regulation.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As the Australian law comes into effect today, we are at a consequential time for the right of national governments to set digital policy. Whether that law succeeds remains to be seen, but we are at a critical junction right now where states, and in Ireland's case states along with the EU, must set policy in the national interest. Protecting children from hate and exploitation is a really good place to start and I support efforts to do so. However, a blanket ban in the long term may be hard to maintain. It is a blunt instrument and it is permeable. Most importantly, it by no means captures the range of action that is urgently needed in respect of the absolute free-for-all of hatred, violence and extreme speech that pervades some platforms totally unchecked.

The digital space should be truly open, a free exchange of ideas, of information and of commerce where the individual is protected. Today, however, that entire business model is based on the sale and resale of personal data and the sophisticated algorithms that are hyper-targeted. They target the individual to drive up interaction, drive up attention and drive up sales. Surely, we now see that this has poisoned discourse in our democracy. It has become a doom-loop of prioritising the most extreme and most fringe views that are completely unmoored from fact, from reason and from any sense of perspective. Today, the people who profit from this system have become the most powerful people in the world. They openly work to undermine our democratic foundations and their sales racket has been used by demagogues and charlatans to capture an entire political process.

It is easy to despair but I do not think we have the luxury of ignoring this any more. As a small EU state with significant big tech companies here, we should be taking a lead role in doing everything we can at European Council level to make sure that the digital world respects individual rights and is truly free from mass subversion. This starts at home and the step that I have continually called for: we should give Coimisiún na Meán the power to require all platforms to ensure that those recommender algorithms are set to a default "off" setting.

I recognise that the Government is taking what it sees as the best step to protect children. I am happy to engage with this proposal as it goes forward but that will not work unless people are protected. It is important that, as well as advancing this proposal, the Government should look to take those wider steps focusing on the algorithms and should commit today to doing so.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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We all know the harm that can result from online toxic material. We know especially the harm that can be done to children. We have had fine speeches from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs making that point, but what is the Government going to do about it? The answer so far is nothing. It is a fine issue to make speeches about and to have concerns on, but when it comes to taking action and taking on the big tech companies, the Government has a record of inaction so far. The Government set up Coimisiún na Meán to regulate this. The commission recommended in its draft online safety code that social media companies should turn off recommender algorithms by default. This one simple measure would have a massive impact. What happened to that recommendation? It was removed after lobbying by big tech companies. We had that confirmed at the AI committee just a couple of weeks ago.

Turning off recommender algorithms by default and turning them off entirely when the user is under 18 would be transformative. At a stroke, it would stop the torrent of toxicity that big tech is flooding us with so that we stay online for longer and buy more stuff. Big tech is exploiting the human instinct to rubberneck even though we do not like what we see, even though it disgusts us. It is why their algorithms recommend execution videos and racist far-right propaganda. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg turn us all into motorists gawking at car accidents.

Turning off the algorithm would mean teenage boys would no longer have misogynistic manosphere content being pushed at them the minute they go online, which is what happens - a teenage boy buys a new blank mobile phone, sets up a teenage boy's account and within half an hour is flooded with this crap. Teenage girls could use social media to communicate with their friends without being inundated with viral videos promoting eating disorders, suicide and self-harm. Women could go online without being bombarded with upsetting videos about miscarriages and stillbirths as soon as the algorithm realises that they are pregnant. The point is not to censor this material; people can still look it up if they want to. The point is to stop social media companies pushing toxic material at us as standard, to stop them normalising racism, sexism and transphobia, and to stop Elon Musk exploiting his ownership and control of social media to flood the zone, whip up fear and hatred, manipulate politics and push it to the far right around the world. That is why we will be introducing a Bill next week on First Stage to turn off recommender algorithms by default and to ban them entirely for children. To make a real difference, we need to take on the big tech companies.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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This is not the first time I have spoken on this in the Dáil. I have one issue with a previous contribution: it is not new technology, as this technology has been around for years. For years, this and previous Governments have been effectively allowing online companies to child groom. Some 70% of 11-to-14-year-olds have seen violent misogyny online. It is not just about what is happening to people online. This is influencing the attitudes and behaviour of young men and boys. That has been proven by study after study. For example, two out of five young men hold "traditional" views. In other words, 52% of them think men should dominate and think that is what manhood is about. Some 46% of them think women's feelings and views should be utterly ignored. The President of the US said to a journalist, "Quiet, piggy". Misogyny and violence against women and children are being absolutely normalised. It will be very interesting to see what happens in Australia, whatever one's view is.

There are many different attitudes one could take, but at least Australia is doing something. What is this Government doing? It is doing absolutely nothing. Is that because all of the tech companies are based in this country, in some cases enjoying zero tax, with us getting corporation tax from them the rest of the time? Ireland is meant to be legislating on behalf of the whole EU in this regard.

More than half of Gen Z have had inappropriate material sent them while 44% have received unsolicited explicit images and 40% have received unwanted sexually suggestive comments. Being online is not a safe place for anyone. It is particularly unsafe for women. It was the theme this year of the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Deepfake videos have been mentioned. I went to the committee that the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre set up. It seems that the committee is being boycotted by the three big parties because nobody came from Fine Gael to two of the meetings. I do not think there was anybody from Sinn Féin either. In any case, absolutely incredible material is being made available by the committee. There was an MLA member who spoke about a deepfake that was used against her in the run up to the elections. This is stuff that every TD should be aware of, yet that committee seems to have been ignored by Members. We need to act, and we need to act now, not be in thrall to these big tech companies, as seems to be the case with the Government.

Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue. It is something that impacts us all in many different ways. To some degree, all of us are online. The days of a parent or grandparent not being online are probably over at this stage because everyone has access to a local Facebook group or whatever may be the case. Obviously, it is not just about being online and covering social media. We can see that in our own lives. As public representatives, we often get targeted with comments made online. When there are votes, we often see our faces being plastered around unflatteringly with comments about how we are this or that. Unfortunately, a lot of them come from the far left side. We can see that not only does that feed off the Internet, but it obviously comes onto our streets and we can see our own images being posted around by people from far left groups. Unfortunately, that is just a reality of modern life, but we should not allow it to become normalised. Unfortunately, it has become normalised.

Deputy Coppinger pointed out how this was not necessarily new technology. It has been around for a number of years. Unfortunately, the online world of the last 25 years has never had safety nets in place. We have seen some changes recently with the introduction of Coimisiún na Meán. Coimisiún na Meán has put things in place. I recently saw a brilliant advertisement showing a child walking through a shopping centre with her parents. Everybody in the shop knows exactly what the child has been doing and asks her how training went and how her dancing went. The kid looks at her parents quizzically wondering how the people know everything about her. It is because the parents are putting her images and life online without asking her. That reinforces the message. Even those subtle points can make us think. It is important that we do.

There has been a lot of talk about young people and online safety. I fully agree. In the past, I have referenced the likes of Conor McGregor and Andrew Tate and how their negative influence impacts young people. I think it was Deputy Murphy, or potentially Deputy Coppinger, who alluded to how that impacted young men. That is something we really need to have monitored.

There are severe risks in place, and they need to be focused on and challenged by ourselves.

John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I will pick up on a point Deputy Neville made about the abuse adults suffered online. One can only appreciate the significant impact that also has on children when they suffer abuse or bullying online. As adults, we have perspective. We receive political abuse online that we might describe as bullying, but we should have the perspective as adults to be able to tolerate that. Not that we should have to tolerate it, but we should be able to deal with it. However, for a young vulnerable child who is unsure of themselves to suffer that will have a very severe and detrimental impact on their well-being. We have seen some catastrophic, sorrowful and damaging impacts from that. It is a point well-made that nobody should suffer it, but we need to go further in protecting children from such suffering.

I agree with Deputy Neville that we have made some strides in recent years. We have seen the establishment of Coimisiún na Meán, we have seen the introduction of Coco's law, the Digital Safety Act and the online safety code. However, I cannot help but think that, in the years to come, we will reflect somewhat on the recent era in the same manner that we currently reflect on how we allowed cigarettes to be so freely available to a generation previous to us. We will ask how it was that we did not recognise the dangers of allowing young people access to such a broad sphere of unregulated information, including information that often has a bias or was sent out to target and, unfortunately, hurt people.

One of the great challenges here is that, as soon as we come to terms with one aspect of the online world and as soon as we generate regulation or start to regulate and monitor behaviour, a new sphere or extension of the online world will create new challenges for us. There will always be darker forces out there. It will be very interesting to observe the ban that has been put in place in Australia, which many people have commented on. Undoubtedly, efforts will made to try to undermine that and try to get access for under-16s to the online world. That is one of the reasons I do not feel the ban will achieve what people think it might. I would not agree on such an outright ban for young people in Ireland. What we need is greater education around the healthy use of the space. As many people with more knowledge of the area than me have said, we should put the obligation on the platforms and the companies to act responsibly, regulate appropriately and look out for poor and harmful behaviour online.

Young people should be taught in schools or at home, using the guide that Coimisiún na Meán has, how to report illegal and harmful content. If more people were aware of that information and it was spread further, people would be able to report harmful or damaging content. That would be beneficial.

Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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Online safety must be a priority for us all. Self-regulation is not a deterring factor in addressing online safety. The competition alone between high-tech companies will drive these companies and platforms to use their lobbyists and power to comply with as little regulation a possible and the dilution of the same. We have witnessed the very destructive nature of the so-called recommender algorithms. The simple answer is to turn them off. We have heard the story of young people and minors in our communities being coerced and manipulated and being brought down rabbit holes into self-harm, eating disorders, cyberbullying, grooming, pornography and suicidal ideation, and older people being scammed and, in some cases, losing their entire life savings. Overseas youth organisations are standing up and speaking out, saying the older generation is letting them down. Some of them complained about their attention span and concentration abilities correlating with the 30-to-40 second TikTok or Instagram clips. They are asking how we could let this happen when we were the adults in the room.

I fear for the future of our youth, including the young people of my county of Wexford. As the Government and Opposition, we have a duty of care. We see the Australians are taking a robust approach, being the country to impose the world's first ban on children under the age of 16 years using TikTok, Alphabet's YouTube, Meta, Instagram and Facebook. However, we believe this is not the solution. In my own county of Wexford, we have seen the human cost, from teachers dealing with phone disputes to bullying online resulting in serious mental health issues and, in some cases, suicide. Parents, An Garda Síochána and schools in Wexford are doing their best, but they need more robust enforcement legislation to curtail recommender algorithms with more accountability and transparency. Platforms must be made to reduce exposure to content with violence, self-harm, bullying and intimidation. Robust appropriate age checks must be part of these regulations. We need to step up and challenge these platforms now. The stakes are high, as our young people are exposed to overwhelmingly complex and sophisticated tech industries that are driven by super profits and powerful individuals. As a member of the AI committee, I welcome the establishment of Coimisiún na Meán. However, it must be well resourced, with firm enforcement procedures, so that our children, older people, small businesses and communities are protected and safe from exploitation, manipulation, scams and harmful content.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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Our children are being systematically abused and we are letting it happen. It is a simple as that. We go on about the old days of this State where we allowed abuse in various institutions and tipped the hat to the church and allowed abuse to go on under the covers. We are doing the same thing now with social media. We are talking the talk but we are not walking the walk.

I have raised this issue multiple times and I am, to be quite honest, underwhelmed by the proposal to use the MyGovID scheme to try to restrict people going online. We should be going at this with a hammer and be even tougher than Australia. If we have to draw back, we can do so. We have to show the companies that we mean business.

As I said, our kids are being abused. I know of a 12-year-old on Roblox who was ostensibly talking to a 15-year-old. The child was sent an image of Roblox characters in different sexual positions. There is no nut to crack on Roblox. Facebook can have all sorts of scams. Instagram can send different reels, including some with dangerous content. There is no effective way to make the companies pay. The European Parliament called for an outright ban. The European Union has legislation coming forward, but we are not enforcing it. We should enforce it to the nth degree and then roll back gradually because we are in danger of losing our kids and social discourse. All around the world, various groups, as mentioned by other Members, have echo chambers. We have to have proper discourse. We need to ensure that this is permitted moving forward.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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While we are talking, our phones are listening. In the next five minutes, whatever we have spoken about will pop up on our phones. We not only have to deal with children; we also have to deal with adults. What happens online is getting into all of our thoughts. If we look up anything, we will be sent four or five things based on that. If what happens online does that to adults, what is it doing to children? People who sign up to online outlets are sent images of people who are self harming and so on. People are also sent images that are not true at all. People are shown doing things that they are not doing, images which are AI generated. Now we do not even know whether we are looking at something that is real.

Transition year students from St. Mary's in Charleville visited the Houses today. They came from Cork, Limerick, Spain and Ukraine. I asked them how they look at social media. They told me sometimes they cannot tell whether things are real. Banning something for those aged up to 16 is not the answer. We need regulation. We also need accountability from parents. How many parents hand their children phones at eight years of age? The responsibility should not be on governance. That is part of it, but the responsibility comes back to parents giving children devices to keep them quiet rather than doing things that are normal. Parents allow children to look online at whatever they like. Parents need to take responsibility.

Certain sites should not be allowed because people can go online by giving false information. AI generated content can state people are different and then they can get online. We need to examine the tools we can work with, namely parents, children, the Government and legislation. That is what we need to do. All of the parts need to work together. We need to work together to make sure that our children and parents are protected into the future.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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I want to address an issue that is becoming increasingly urgent, namely the safety of our children online. On radio today, Galway West Independent Ireland Councillor Noel Thomas called on the Government to examine the Australian model. This is a conversation we can no longer avoid. Australia has produced the online safety assurance Bill 2025, which sets clear and enforceable standards, bans social media access for those under 16 unless platforms can verify age, requires robust age verification tools and gives regulators real powers to audit and sanction non-compliant companies.

This is not about being anti-technology. It is about protecting children from harmful content, bullying and addictive algorithms. Parents in Ireland are fighting a losing battle against platforms designed to keep young people hooked. We already have age limits for alcohol, gambling and vaping. Why should social media, with its proven risks to mental health, be any different?

I call on the Government to initiate a full national consultation with parents, schools and youth mental health experts to review international best practice and legislate so the burden of proof falls on platforms and not parents. Ireland should be a leader in online child safety. Australia has shown us a roadmap. The question now is whether we are prepared to act. The problem in this country is that we worry about our children, and we have every right to do so, but the adults have as big a problem with phones as children do.

I have seen the scandalous carry on with AI by some people. They are addicted to AI and use it to send out sinister letters and nonsensical rubbish. They think the other side is stupid and foolish and cannot read through it. It is outrageous. We have continued to allow AI, Facebook and everyone to do what they want. We are afraid to take them on. There should be severe fines for adults who are abusing technology. By God, they are abusing it. I know plenty of them that are at it. They are nonsensical. The Government has to stand up to these bully type people and win the war against this carry on.

Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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I urge the Government to protect children online. What children are exposed to online is absolutely incredible, in particular the level of bullying that they experience. Many years ago, if a child was bullied it was confined to school or a football club. In the online world, it happens 365 days a year and could happen every hour of the day. This technology is not new, yet the Government has done so little. That is the truth. It has allowed tech companies to lead the way and we are in the ha'penny place.

Some 40% of Irish schoolchildren report cyber-bullying. Almost half of the children in this country are a victim of cyber-bullying. Some 36% never tell anyone. It is a silent crime and children suffer in silence. Hotline.ie processed almost 30,000 child sexual abuse reports in one year. There is a significant level of grooming in this space.

The victims and their families are affected not just by words; it is much greater than that. Erin Gallagher, at just 13 years of age, lost her life to suicide following bullying on ask.fm. Ciara Pugsley also lost her life following online harassment at just 15 years of age. I ask the Minister to take the ball and prioritise this. This evening, in homes across the country, children are suffering and being harassed online and their parents and teachers may never know about it. Australia has taken the lead. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, we need to be proactive and protect our children. I urge the Minister to prioritise this very serious issue.

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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When we talk about online safety, we usually think about passwords, scams or stranger danger. However, there is a different kind of danger, one that lives quietly in our social media feeds, namely, impossible to imagine beauty standards resulting in body dysmorphia which is shaping teenage mental health. Studies show that 97% of young people from the age of 12 upwards are on social media, often for hours a day. The impact is stark. By the age of 12, three out of four children already dislike their own bodies. Many report withdrawing from friends, overexercising and self harming following being compared or criticised online. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat surround us with filtered, edited and perfected images.

Even when we know they are not real, our brains will still compare. For teenagers, that comparison is acute. The emotional part of the adolescent brain develops faster than the critical thinking part. When teens are bombarded with ideal bodies, their reaction is immediate and emotional - "I do not look like that and I should".

A recent study found that almost 30% of adolescents showed signs of body dysmorphic disorder, preoccupied with flaws they believed they had. The highest risk was among girls and older teens. This is not just about body insecurity. Eating disorders linked to body dissatisfaction have some of the highest mortality rates of any mental health illness. This is why online safety must be expanded beyond passwords and privacy. Algorithms are pushing extreme content because it keeps us watching. Filters are normalising bodies that do not exist. Right now, young people are paying the price.

We need a cultural change and stronger regulation, real age checks and limits on harmful content, algorithm transparency and honest imaging. Digital literacy must be a core skill. We have to challenge the idea that a young person's worth is measured in likes or appearance. Australia is carrying out a radical experiment, with the banning of many social media platforms for children under 16. Many young people are reporting withdrawal anxiety but this is a social experiment worth undertaking. We should monitor it carefully and extrapolate our own learnings. There is a trend about taking back control from this many-headed, self-perpetuating, profit-driven industry that knows only too well its own algorithms.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy should conclude.

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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It would be remiss of me not to tell the Minister of State the story of my generation. When we started in secondary school in 2011, all of our phones were still call and text phones. By the time we reached the junior certificate year, every single person had a smartphone, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. The entire landscape of being a teenager in Ireland had completely changed by 2013. Since then, what we have seen has been an escalation and elevation of the speed at which mobile phones and the applications therein seek to take our attention and time and, ultimately, rob us of the ability to form real life connections with people in school, on the pitch, going out and living life as a normal teenager would have done for many years. No doubt, technology has provided a huge amount of information, access and ability for people but, to be honest, all I see at the moment is distraction.

Recently, I attended an event in Labane in County Galway that was run by a lady called Aoife Noone. She runs Think Smart Cyber and is travelling around County Galway holding events for parents. Recently, in Loughrea, there was a packed room at her event and there were packed rooms in Labane and Dunmore. She is selling out rooms to parents because they simply do not know what the answer is or how to get their children away from the phones.

What do most parents want? First and foremost, they want their children to be safe. They then want their children to achieve the very best of their potential. Look at the way China rolls out TikTok to its young people. It only shows them information that will benefit them. However, we only see information that is distracting, pulls us away from our goals and distracts us with the lives of others.

The Government needs to make a very clear decision about which way we will go here. First and foremost, we have to protect people. We have to ensure we leave no child behind and go back to our community roots. We do that by enforcing rules on these companies which seek nothing more than profit.

Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I am a dad of three boys, aged six, four and one. Nothing terrifies me more than the virtual world they will go into. I am a few years ahead of Deputy Dolan but I also remember my phone not having the capability that phones have now. More important, when we in this House were growing up, we grew and acquired a phone. Our children today are growing up with phones as if they were part of their body. We have moved to a situation where I am worried technology is no longer the servant but is turning into the master. We are creating two realities in parallel. Our children see a virtual reality and a real reality.

Deputy Daly referred to the images of virtual perfection that are cosseted and encouraged. That is not necessarily because of the algorithm, but because of the environment in which these children are growing up. Phones are now considered to be as crucial to their life as the wheel was to many generations and civilisations. It is an integral part of who they are. The challenge as regards how we regulate and deal with this is understanding that key distinction. It is not about trying to go after the technology or go after the virtual reality. It is understanding that we have now created this environment where there are those two realities and we need to regulate that in the same way.

Without a doubt, one of the things we now focus on is minimising the amount of screen time that our younger people have. It is also about educating them about how they use that screen time so they understand the dopamine hit they get from an interaction on a social media app is just that, an empty dopamine hit with no basis in reality or no root whatsoever in real life. It is about educating them about the sheer power of the tool they hold in their hand, without necessarily discovering that power can be used for adverse means later in their life. Ultimately, we cannot see inside a young person's or child's head, so we have no idea of the effects that interaction with technology is having on them, unlike the other interactions we see with technologies around them.

I honestly believe that while it is right and proper that we in this House take a proactive approach to addressing this, we need to be a champion for it at EU level as well. We need to make sure this does not get caught up in the discussion about innovation and regulation. This is about safety, pure and simple. With any new technology, safety should be core to its regulation, without discouraging innovation. I encourage a redoubling of our efforts at European level to engage in that, for all the new fathers and fathers-to-be of a generation that is growing up and does not know any different.

Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for enabling this discussion. Our most precious asset is our children. They are our future. There is a saying that it is much easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults.

I acknowledge the great work being done to ensure cybersecurity and to try to prevent cyber-bullying but I have to say that I concur with Professor Mary Aiken, who spoke on Monday morning with David McCullagh, that childhood has been rewired. Deputies raised issues with regard to access to adult content, cyber-bullying, body dysmorphia and other issues and I completely concur with them. Parents cannot compete with the continuous impact that is coming at them. I am not sure the Australian model is the best one to follow. I concur with Professor Aiken that tiered access and age-appropriate bans on accessing various content deserve more merit. We are, effectively, dealing with an uncontrolled experiment that has not been risk assessed.

In respect of the school curriculum, while the review of the anti-bullying policy in 2022, the current Bí Cineálta programme and all of those measures have been introduced to try to empower children to deal with what is online, we are putting the cart before the horse. It should be the platforms and algorithms that are dealt with, rather than making our education system align with them. Those programmes have not been risk assessed, to the best of my knowledge.

Going back to the policing of this, An Garda Síochána is under-resourced and the enforcement piece cannot be dealt with. Professor Aiken spoke in 2019 at an Oireachtas committee. She said she was aware of the importance of the tech industry to the economy but we have to grasp the nettle and that, perhaps, corporate social responsibility dealing with the algorithms is the way to go. There will be an economic cost, with reduced revenue perhaps, but the economic cost of the harm and trying to rehabilitate children who have been harmed is immeasurable.

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I concur with some of the other younger Deputies. I was brought up with this. I remember going to school when the first phones came out and growing up through the smartphone era. I remember my first time having that urge to check the phone and feeling like I was tied to it. I currently have a blocker on my phone that restricts my social media access but kids are not very aware of what they are doing. We also have to put parents on notice not to give their children phones at such an early age. I do not encourage another phone pouches incident, however. Parents should be liable for their children.

We are living in an age where social media is not simply a place to connect. For many of the young people in my constituency, it has become a daily reality that shapes self-image and relationships. As all the previous speakers said, we are experiencing a mental health crisis, with recent studies showing high levels of mental health problems, especially among young teenagers. The algorithms behind these platforms are adding to that. These algorithms are not designed by people with the intention that people do not stay on the phone. Rather, they are designed to keep people addicted and give them a dopamine hit. We are rewiring the next generation’s brains. Looking at the generation that is growing up, they are constantly comparing and looking. Social media is always about comparison. It is an online image.

I looked at the Act in this regard. Coimisiún na Meán matters and I welcome the fact it has been doing a lot of work. The framework to regulate harmful content online has been good, but it should extend beyond just filtering out extreme content. We need to demand better algorithms, as other Deputies said, transparency and age verification for what people are viewing online, especially young children. The framework offers a platform to tackle cyber-bullying, which I welcome. I heard some other Deputies talking about what they have experienced online. If you cannot face criticism online, you definitely should not become a politician. All issues that impact mental health, especially among children and teenagers, need to be looked at.

I will not mentioned the people by name, but I spoke to a parent in my constituency whose young son has had to come off all social media because he is really struggling with his mental health due to bullying. That is something else we need to regulate.

I am running out of time. I wanted to speak about the need for stronger enforcement online, public awareness, literacy programmes in schools and a transparent view of how the recommendations of algorithms impact young people. It is not just about regulation but, rather, protecting our future generation.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank all Members of the House who have contributed with substantive points throughout the debate and discussion this afternoon on a significant and important topic in the times we live in. As the Minister, Deputy O’Donovan, said in his opening statement, the online safety of our children and young people is a top priority for the Government and all of us. We all want our children to enjoy themselves online, be able to connect with people and find out about the world they live in, so it is essential we make sure that children do not see illegal, harmful or inappropriate content. The effective regulation of online platforms is essential when it comes to creating a safe online environment for young people.

It is fair to say that in recent years we have made significant progress in establishing Coimisiún na Meán and bringing the legislative underpinnings of the online safety framework forward. In doing so, we have sought to ensure an coimisiún’s sustainability by enabling it to fund its activities through levies on regulated entities. We gave it a kick-start with Exchequer funding and extensive sanction to recruit staff. We are seeking to make regulation seamless and efficient by co-locating regulatory functions in an coimisiún. We see the fruits of this investment and progress today. The online safety code applies in full. An coimisiún is supervising the online safety framework and it is well on its way to a staff complement of 300. The legislation provides for significant financial sanctions in the case of non-compliance and continued non-compliance can lead to criminal sanctions for senior management.

The Minister outlined to the House where we stand in terms of implementing the framework. Under the Digital Services Act, DSA, it is the European Commission that is the lead enforcer and we have just seen the Commission conclude an investigation with a fine of over €120 million for the platform, X. Of course, the aim of regulation is not to impose massive fines but to achieve compliance and enhanced online safety. There are quite a few examples of platforms taking the necessary steps to bring themselves into compliance rather than face those fines.

We are still at the beginning stage for online safety. We know that algorithms and recommender systems can have harmful impacts on users, especially children, so we wait with anticipation for the outcome of the European Commission’s investigation into TikTok and Meta on these matters. An coimisiún stands ready to assist the European Commission in its work under the DSA. I know, however, that none of this is much comfort to colleagues in this House, other elected politicians and candidates who have been subject to abuse and bullying online. I reiterate the importance of reporting any such incidents to the relevant platform in the first place. An coimisiún wants people to report content and, if anyone is dissatisfied with a platform’s response, he or she can bring it to Coimisiún na Meán.

Members will be aware that an coimisiún’s investigations into platforms are around how they deal with complaints, so it is aware of issues in this area. The more evidence an coimisiún has, the better equipped it will be to focus and target its supervision and enforcement functions. That is why awareness is so important. Coimisiún na Meán has been running a variety of public awareness campaigns since its establishment, illustrating that online safety is a whole-of-society issue. It is co-operating with, for example, the Department of education and Webwise on educational resources, as well as receiving welcome support from the Department of Health for a two-pronged awareness campaign that is currently running, aimed at both children and parents.

However, within online safety, the top priority is robust age verification. It is vital to protect children from harmful content online. That is why we are working with the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, OGCIO, on incorporating age verification in Ireland’s digital wallet. In addressing age verification, we must seek to ensure there are trustworthy systems in place that are interoperable and respect users’ rights, including data protection rights. The aim is to commence an extensive pilot next year and we expect that those who are committed to online safety will be happy to engage.

It is important to reiterate that robust age verification is not a stalking horse for a ban on children accessing social media. We are all aware of Australia’s initiative in this regard but, for Ireland, we think it is important that any such decision is taken at EU level with other member states. However, as the Minister said, there is no universal view on this across the EU, nor in Ireland. The initiative of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, with regard to an expert panel to look at the matter is important. Whatever decisions we make, we need to listen to children and have regard to their rights, while protecting them from harm.

With respect to the future, the Minister has said that online safety will be his top priority during Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union next year. We will engage with children and young people in this regard. As outlined, significant progress has been made through legislation and regulation. Considerations are being given to future next steps.

It is also important that we educate and raise awareness among the general public of Ireland's online safety network, the obligations of platforms, the rights of users and the role of Coimisiún na Meán.

In conclusion, regulation is not a silver bullet. We need to support parents and families to have those difficult conversations with their children. Online safety is a whole-of-society issue and a whole-of-government priority. From a regulatory perspective, we have made good progress but we have more to do.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State. That concludes statements on online safety.