Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Senator Norris asked about the disadvantages and practicalities. As a mother, I want to encourage an environment in which my daughter can be honest about her age online. There are predators and paedophiles pretending to be young girls in order to communicate with young girls. If parents do not give their consent to young girls, those girls have to lie to get online and they pose as 16 year olds or 17 year olds to do so. If we move the age to 16, closer to the age of sexual consent, will we put them in a more vulnerable position? Can we pursue the predator when he says a girl's profile shows her as born in a particular year and asks how he was to know she was only 11 or 12?