Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I move:

That leave be granted to introduce Bill entitled an Act to amend the law relating to the recording, distribution or publication of intimate images so as to extend its provisions to images that are generated or modified by computer-graphics; for that purpose to amend the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020; and to provide for related matters.

This Bill is critically important. I have just come from chairing an Oireachtas media committee meeting that heard from representatives of TikTok, Google and Meta. X refused to come in, which says its own thing. That was a disgraceful decision. After that meeting, I can assure everybody in this House that this Bill is needed more than ever.

The Bill is a huge enhancement of Coco's Law, which was inspired by the Labour Party and our former colleague, Brendan Howlin. This Bill follows on from Coco's Law. It deals with what we believe are loopholes in the law when it comes to the sharing of sexual and intimate images, whether they are AI-generated or real. It ensures that the definition of "image" includes images that are generated by AI or computer-generated images. Most importantly, the Bill sets a criminal act for the generation and sharing of such images by those who facilitate it, that is, the e-commerce companies. Those companies are publishers and not just platforms. They hide behind the word "platform". They are e-commerce companies that are worth billions or zillions of dollars. They are trading on people's vulnerability. They are getting away with an incredible amount of harassment and abuse that is affecting the lives of millions of people.

I have heard, and always believe, that we can look towards Europe when everybody there is aligned in respect of bringing in legislation to deal with such issues. Unfortunately, we cannot wait for Europe in this case because it will take too long. Many of the children, and indeed adults, across this country will be affected if we wait.

The Bill clarifies what is an abuse image to include AI-generated images, but also ensures that the companies involved are prosecutable for the facilitation of such abuse and for the sharing of such abuse. No one should lie in fear that their image or identity can be abused or weaponised. The primary responsibility of those of us in the Chamber and in the Oireachtas is to protect our citizens. This Bill protects everyone's digital safety on this issue.

I hope the Government will - I do not mind - take it on, change it or do whatever but keep the ethos of it and by doing so act speedily to deal with this issue. We have the European Presidency coming up and the Taoiseach has spoken about changes he would like to see in that time. We cannot even wait until then. We have to deal with this issue now. There is a loophole that needs to be addressed. At the Oireachtas committee meeting earlier, both Meta and TikTok refused to tell us how many accounts they had for children under 16. Let that sink in. They needed to get permission from on high to find out if they could share that information in a jurisdiction. This is the type of company we are dealing with. If we believe we can trust them within the regulatory framework that currently exists, we are so bloody naive; we cannot. This is all about money and power. Some jurisdiction in this world has to stand up and shout "Stop". This country, where many of these companies are based, should be the jurisdiction to do so. The initiation of that will be if we collectively as a legislature implement this Bill. I hope the Government will support it in the coming weeks. We do not have time to wait.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Is the Bill being opposed?

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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It is not opposed.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Since this is a Private Members' Bill, Second Stage must, under Standing Orders, be taken in Private Members' time.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."