Deirdre Clune (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply and I note the comments of the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, that he believes it is probably worthwhile looking at the issue of pornography and children's access to it, not necessarily child pornography but pornography in general that is legal but access to which should be restricted.

The Minister of State said that the extent of the effects of widely available pornography on the development of young people is not yet fully understood. Anything I have read shows that it has a distorting effect on children. I am sure it is not desirable. I hope that the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources will engage with this matter and do his utmost to ensure that the Internet service providers also engage and that we do have filtering mechanisms in place. I am not saying they will be the solution to everything and I know there will be mechanisms found to get around them but not necessarily by all children. Protection of vulnerable children should be our highest priority.