Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I thank the joint committee for putting a huge amount of work into this. That includes the report and the numerous meetings it had. I am sorry I missed it and that I am not on the committee as it has been very interesting. However, I worked in advertising and marketing for 15 years so I know how important this Bill is and how much it is needed. It will be one of the most important Bills we work on during this mandate. We must take proper account of the influence of new media. I was watching "Pam and Tommy" on Disney+ over the weekend. I watched how that was part of the explosion of the Internet. It reminded me of how important this Bill is and how old that seems, but this has only happened over the past couple of decades. The Bill is absolutely necessary. This should be the time responsible digital citizenship catches up with unregulated online platforms and, therefore, I completely get how significant this is.

We have heard all the good reasons for this around online safety, bullying, the influence on diets and image and the list goes on. I do not like referencing when other Senators say things I think inappropriate but I have an issue with a Senator saying we are here because parents are not doing their job. I give my phone to my seven-year-old and I know what she is watching. Giving a child a phone, under supervision of a parent, is not a bad thing to do. We are not here to judge people. If we are going to recognise we need laws and rights for children in the real world then why would they not need them online? We have recognised the online world is the Wild West so we either provide rights and regulations there or we leave it as it is, and for me that is not an option. This is indeed about protecting rights but it should not be about judging parents.

On aspects of the Bill, I agree with what Senators have said about the individual or direct complaints mechanism. We have a huge responsibility here not just to our citizens but because we are tech leaders, this has an impact on 27 other member states and we must rise to that challenge. I understand where the Minister is coming from and welcome the report the expert group is doing but if we want to see the step change we need this must be part of it. While initially it might take significant resources, there should be a standard that is set out and that changes behaviour. Similar to what other Senators have said, this is not about us being reactive but about us becoming proactive and investing in keeping up with technology and proactively challenging the damaging algorithms that are out there.

On community radio, I have been asked to request that the scheme for professional journalists on practices in community sound broadcasting be extended to television as well. I ask that there be more specificity about what those schemes are with respect to the monetary value and how many of them there will be for community radio, which is a huge and important part of the media landscape.

I have one last point; I apologise as I am running out of time. I agree we need an explicit reference to banning online advertising of junk food, alcohol and gambling. I worked in the industry and the TV and radio code is not effective enough. Companies had to get their ads approved when I worked in the industry. They had to be approved by RTÉ for radio and TV. That does not happen in the online space. It has been recognised the BAI needed to address it and it did not because of this Bill. Children do not watch TV just up until 6 p.m. with their parents and it is not just children's programmes, where TV is concerned. With online, we must definitely look at the recommendations of the committee and enforce them in that regard.