Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Bill will, among other things, establish a new regulator and multi-person media commission, to which an online safety commissioner will be appointed. While there are significant regulatory and legal frameworks in place to address many online issues such as data protection and criminal justice responses to criminal activities online, there is a serious gap in Ireland and internationally when it comes to addressing harmful online content. This new law will close that legal gap and establish a robust regulatory framework to deal with the spread of harmful online content. The commissioner will govern this new framework through binding online safety codes and robust compliance, enforcement and sanction powers. Online safety codes will deal with a wide range of issues, including measures to be taken by online services to tackle the availability of harmful online content, such as cyberbullying material, on their services. The media commission will replace the BAI and be responsible for overseeing updated regulations for broadcasting and video-on-demand services and a new regulatory framework for online safety created by the Bill. The Bill will also transpose the revised audiovisual media service directive, AVMSD, into Irish law, including the regulation of video sharing platform services as part of the regulatory framework for online safety. As the Minister pointed out, harmful online content will be defined by reference to defined categories of content, including a category containing a schedule of criminal offences and three further categories relating to cyberbullying, the promotion of suicide and self-harm and the promotion of eating disorders.

I have every belief the Minister is strong and resilient about this Bill. I have no doubt she will see this through. I assure her that the public very much welcome this Bill. I will be honest. Though they do not say it do us, many families are frozen by fear. Do I take the phone off my youngster? Do I talk to them? If I do that, what way should I approach it? There is a horrendous fear out there. The Minister and the Government are bringing forward robust legislation, which I agree may need to go though Committee Stage a little slowly so we cover every aspect of it.Once people see it going through and an effort by all of us to put this in place, I think they will be very happy. Ms Frances Haugen is a hero in my eyes. She is travelling the world, informing us and others of what is going on. Remember, she is coming from the inside out. She had a very well-paid and well-to-do job. She took a huge decision to do what she is doing. We should be grateful and thankful to her. I think she will be around the Oireachtas tomorrow.

To be honest, I do not have much trust in the tech companies. They create many jobs here and many people have good employment with them and I acknowledge that. However, I, like many of the Members, have had family deeply traumatised because of big tech companies failing to act and deal with material that was vile, evil and downright threatening. This has happened to thousands of people. We heard on RTÉ over the weekend of those vile threats to people in Galway involved in politics.

The Bill is strong and if necessary, we can make further improvements to further strengthen it. We must all acknowledge, perhaps sometimes we are afraid to say it, that misinformation is all over our political system. It is doing enormous damage to democracy. We always had the cut and thrust of politics. What comes up now on social media is very damaging. What is annoying is that so many people believe the most outrageous lies that come up there. Therefore, we are in a very difficult situation.

I reiterate that the Minister and the Oireachtas committee deserve much praise. I have no doubt we are doing the right thing. I would be careful about saying parents have responsibilities. While they do, we are in a very different world with social media. We all know its good aspects but there are really bad aspects of it. I will go back to what I said earlier, which is that many families are frozen with fear and they will very much welcome this lead being taken by the Minister and the Government. I hope it pays dividends.