Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Today, the members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media launched our report on the proposed online safety and media regulation Bill. It is hugely important legislation that it is to be hoped will be coming before us in the House in the winter. After nearly a year of intensive work, where we dealt with a huge spectrum of witnesses from across Irish life, the joint committee made 33 recommendations to the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, in respect of the Bill because it must be got right. We are dealing now with a medium that is highly influential on the manner in which society itself is conducted. We heard from our witnesses about the impact it is having, especially on young people. Some of the key recommendations we have made today include an individual complaints scheme available to people, that provisions be responsive to the need to, in particular, protect children and vulnerable groups and the provision of an online safety commissioner.We had as a witness the Australian eSafety Commissioner. She has done amazing work in bringing to heel the social media companies which talk about self-regulation and the need for community standards, but whose standards fall very short when it comes to certain people. Other key recommendations include a ban on advertising to children online and that disinformation and financial harm, including gambling, be included as categories of harmful content and the need for a content levy on the major streaming companies in order that we can invest in original Irish content again. I look forward to the Minister taking on board the cross-party recommendations we made today on the online media safety Bill and to the Bill coming before this House before Christmas in order that it can be debated thoroughly and implemented.