Marie Sherlock (Dublin Central, Labour)
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1534. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality in view of the exploitation of children through financial extortion schemes involving social media-linked payment services, and the use of unverified age and guardianship claims by perpetrators to circumvent anti-money laundering and child protection frameworks, the role his the Department is playing in ensuring enforcement of age and guardianship verification standards to prevent the laundering of proceeds from child exploitation crimes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45311/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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Online safety for children is a Government priority. It is essential that children do not see illegal, harmful or inappropriate content while being able to safely avail of all the benefits of the online world.

Coimisiún na Meán, Ireland’s online safety and media regulator, is at the core of Ireland’s online safety framework, which comprises the Online Safety and Media Regulation (OSMR) Act, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the EU Terrorist Content Online Regulation (TCOR).

The OSMR provides Coimisiún na Meán with the regulatory tools to address the root causes of harm online, including the responsibility to make codes, known as online safety codes, which put obligations on designated video sharing platforms to ensure their platforms are safe for users, especially children.

Coimisiún na Meán’s Online Safety Code, which applies to video-sharing platforms established in Ireland, including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and X, makes it clear that simply requiring self-declaration of age is no longer sufficient for platforms to meet their legal obligations. Part B of the Code, which has applied from July 2025, obliges them to implement effective age assurance measures to ensure that adult-only video content, such as pornography or extreme violence, cannot normally be seen by children. It is up to the platforms to ensure whatever age assurance method they are using is robust and privacy securing.

In addition to the Online Safety Code, online platforms also have to comply with the Digital Services Act, which requires platforms to address the risk of children and young people being exposed to illegal online content including by means of age-verification or age-assurance, setting children’s accounts as private by default, adjusting recommender systems and allowing children to block or mute users. There are also further requirements for designated Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs), such as an obligation to design their systems to ensure a high level of privacy, security, and safety of minors, and to carry out risk assessments. The EU Commission is the competent authority for supervising VLOPs, however it works in close cooperation with the Digital Services Coordinators in each member state, such as Coimisiún na Meán in Ireland to enforce the DSA.

The investigation of crime is the responsibility of the Garda Commissioner. The Commissioner is, by statute, independent in his functions and I, as Minister, am unable to seek to direct the Commissioner in any operational policing matter. Anyone who suspects a criminal act has been committed should report that to An Garda Síochána.