Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support the comments of Senators O'Brien and van Turnhout on the blocking of child abuse material. As Senator van Turnhout said, it is a crime scene. I would like the Minister for Justice and Equality to come before the House for a broader debate on Internet content regulation. Proposals were first made in 2011, and since the UPC proposals were issued last night and the memorandum of understanding was signed, some concerns were raised about the legislative basis for the proposals.

I understand the Internet content governance advisory group stated that legislation would be needed to implement the directive on blocking sites with child abuse images. Questions have been raised in the past 24 hours about legislation, and there are concerns about how the lists will be drawn up and over-blocking. The European data protection supervisor in May 2010 said, when discussing the directive, that it should be done in a strictly targeted way and under judicial control, and that misuse of the mechanism should be prevented by adequate security measures. It is important that we have a broader debate on Internet content regulation. We need to make sure that any mechanisms introduced have sufficient legislative underwriting and cannot be abused in the future.