Joan Freeman (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

The purpose of the Bill I am introducing is to safeguard children from exposure to harmful and age inappropriate content online by placing responsibility for the distribution of such information on Internet service providers. I am speaking about content that contains encouragement of and incitement to suicide and self-harm and encouragement of prolonged nutritional deprivation that could put a child's health at risk. I will give an example of what I am talking about. This afternoon I spent 30 seconds on the Internet. I typed in the word "suicide". The first thing that came up was a HSE website advising people to let someone know if they had concerns in that regard. The second thing that came up was the website of a charity that is well known for suicide intervention. The third website that came up encouraged and instructed people on how to take their own lives. That was the third hit. This grave matter is affecting children. We need to acknowledge that suicide rates among young teenage females have increased so dramatically that Ireland now has the highest rate of suicide in Europe among young female teenagers. Again, this is related to the Internet. In the past young girls who attempted suicide would have chosen non-fatal methods, but now they are using more lethal methods because they are being instructed on the Internet.

I saw a website today that went into lengthy and horrifying detail in providing answers for those seeking information on how to take their own lives. It is upsetting enough that adults can access this information, but we must bear in mind that children can do so too. According to Ofsted, 39% of children between the ages of eight and 11 years and 83% of those between the ages of 12 and 15 have their own smartphones. We know that vulnerable children and young people spend more time online than their peers. A recent NHS report revealed that one in three young people with a mental disorder was on social media for at least four hours on a typical schoolday and for significantly longer on Saturdays and Sundays. In 2011 the EU Kids Online study which was led by the London School of Economics found that one quarter of Irish young people between the ages of 11 and 16 years had come across harmful online content, 11% had seen anorexic and bulimic websites, 9% had seen self-harm websites and 4% had seen websites on which suicide was discussed. Given that this study was published almost eight years ago, we can be absolutely sure that the numbers in question are significantly higher today.

The "thinspiration" generation has unlimited access to all forms of websites which actively promote a culture of starvation among people who are already vulnerable. In Ireland there are 200,000 people with eating disorders. According to the HSE, the number of hospitalisations of teenage girls for anorexia and bulimia has almost doubled in the past ten years. There is a clear relationship between high levels of obsession with body image and the development of eating disorders. By definition, body image dysmorphia is one criterion in the diagnosis of both bulimia and anorexia nervosa. The websites about which I am talking are extremely damaging for people with eating disorders. There is no legislation regulating the distribution of such websites which can include online chatrooms in which starvation and eating solutions - how to starve oneself - are encouraged. Irish figures for self-harm and eating disorders have soared in the past decade. Ireland has the highest rate for girls who take their own lives. The reasons for these figures are complex, which means that we need a complex multi-factoral model to understand them. I believe that if we ignore the role played by dangerous online content, it will be at our peril. We need to study addictive-type behaviour in the use of smartphones and social media. Rates of anxiety and depression are increasing. There is extreme pressure on young people online, especially on image-based social technology websites.

This legislation will strengthen the regulation of access to unsafe online material. There is no unique approach to the regulation of online material. The existing practice is that a complaint can be made to an Internet service provider which responds if it chooses to do so. It is up to each provider to act of its own accord in a form of self-regulation. There are 33 Internet service providers registered with the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland and they have no uniform complaints procedure. No uniform actions are taken in response to complaints about harmful material. This legislation responds to a deep concern that self-governance in this area is not effective and potentially life-threatening. Its intention is to require Internet service providers in Ireland to remove or block harmful material which is not illegal but which nonetheless is age inappropriate.

Other countries have introduced legislation in response to the abuse of online information. For example, Australia has passed the Criminal Code Amendment (Suicide Related Material Offences) Act 2005. Take-down orders, as they are known under EU law, appear to be the most effective way to police this type of content because there are no standards in primary legislation for the distribution of harmful online content. The legislation I am proposing, which no doubt will need certain revisions, seeks to place responsibility on the Commission for Communications Regulation to issue enforcement notices against Internet service providers and other entities where content is legal but age-inappropriate. Generally, illegal content is governed by the separate hotline service in Ireland, which deals exclusively with child pornography. This legislation is not concerned with child pornography.

The harmful content covered by the Bill comes under four categories in section 3(2). The first is encouragement or incitement to suicide. The second is encouragement of any self-harm practices. The third is encouragement of prolonged nutritional deprivation that would have the effect of exposing a child to risk of death. The fourth is the encouragement of any unsafe practices that would endanger the health and well-being of the child. A person can make a complaint regarding any content falling under these categories.

I want to pay tribute to Dr. Mary Aiken. I am delighted the legislation has received academic support from Dr. Aiken, who is the adjunct associate professor of the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy. She is willing to chair a debate on the regulation of inappropriate Internet content. She has rallied tirelessly on the importance of this issue at academic and political levels. I am grateful for her oversight and her work on this proposal. I thank the Minister of State for being here today.