Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 210: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his plans to introduce legislation in relation to social networking sites; the need for privacy default settings following the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42086/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is no doubt aware, the internet is an international and world wide phenomenon, it has no borders and no single organisation controlling it. Therefore efforts to combat illegal and harmful materials and activities on it can often be hampered by the multiplicity of jurisdictions, differing legal systems and differing societal norms. Many of the major Social Networking Sites available here in Ireland, including the service referred to, are hosted outside this jurisdiction, principally in the United States. As such they are subject to the US jurisdiction and generally their Terms of Service explicitly provide that users agree to be governed by US law.

While acknowledging these difficulties, I should emphasis that there is a robust self-regulatory framework for internet service providers (ISPs) in operation here in Ireland which actively encourages the adoption of best practice procedures aimed at limiting the proliferation of illegal and harmful content on-line. The Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland (ISPAI) Code of Practice and Ethics sets out clear guidelines and minimum standards in respect of dealing with complaints regarding suspected illegal or harmful material on-line.

The first thing someone should do if they are having issues with content on a Social Networking Site is report the matter to the website owners. A person can use the website reporting tools to do this and should also contact the service provider through its Customer Care or Report Abuse facility. Specifically in relation to the service referred to by the Deputy, I would note that it does have an explicit Privacy Policy which indicates that a user of the service can control who their profile information is shared with. For users aged under 18, the default setting for profiles is private.

I wish to advise that in 2008, the European Commission convened 18 of Europe's major social networking operators, including the service referred to by the Deputy, as well as researchers and child welfare organisations, to form a European Social Networking Task Force to discuss guidelines for the use of social networking sites by children. These guidelines, the Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU, were adopted voluntarily by the European industry and were signed on Safer Internet Day 2009, February 10 2009, in Luxembourg. The Safer Social Networking Principles for the EU have been developed to provide good practice recommendations for the providers of social networking and other user interactive sites, to enhance the safety of children and young people using their services. The Principles provide that social networking providers should, inter alia, provide a mechanism for reporting inappropriate content, respond to notifications of illegal content or conduct and should review their systems for examining reports of inappropriate or illegal content. The European Commission has indicated that it will monitor on an ongoing basis the implementation of the Social Networking Principles and I understand that a comprehensive review by the Commission of the implementation of the Principles is currently underway.