Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Ireland’s media minister has said he is “outraged” that the EU cannot agree on how to crack down on children accessing inappropriate material online.
Patrick O’Donovan said that allowing young children on social media is the public health issue of our generation and that governments have a duty to protect children.
He compared allowing children “uncontrolled” access to the Internet to giving them a gin and tonic at a bar or handing them a box of cigarettes and matches.
irish The government is planning to launch a “digital wallet” that will include age-verification controls.
Mr O’Donovan said the wallet would be available as an app and would allow the government to send alerts and information.
He said a larger pilot project would begin early next year, involving about 2,000 people over and under the age of 18.
The development of digital wallets is being led by the office Government Chief Information Officer, while Mr O’Donovan’s department is working with the office on providing an age verification tool as part of the wallet.
Mr O’Donovan said they would be able to legislate to restrict the level of information transferred from digital wallets to social media platforms.
Ireland is moving ahead with its plans as the EU has not been able to reach a consensus on the issue.
“You wouldn’t allow a kid to sit at the counter in a bar and drink a gin and tonic,” Mr O’Donovan said at Government Buildings in Dublin on Wednesday.
“We are allowing children, unchecked, access to some of the most hateful content online.
“As a parent and a teacher, but more importantly, in this role as a minister with responsibility, it frustrates me that we have been in a situation where we have had to act on our own for the last several years, and we have not been able to build consensus on this. Europe As to how we proceed on this.
“I hope I can use it as president European Union “Next year, Communications Ministers have the opportunity to really take this forward and the theme of our department will be ‘Child Safety Online’.”
He said he was “outraged” that the EU has not yet acted on the issue, and said the “failure” of its institutions to act as a voice is “a matter of collective shame for us”.
He added: “From a public health standpoint, and I think this is the public health policy issue of our generation, and the smoking ban was in the late ’90s or early ’00s, it’s very similar to that.”
Mr O’Donovan was asked about concerns that children might face age-related restrictions, to which he replied “we have to try”.
He added: “And if at first we don’t succeed, we’ll try it again.”
He said: “We’re not talking about taking kids away from technology and sending them on a one-way ticket back to the Stone Age, and what we’re talking about is protecting their innocence.”
He was also asked whether Ireland would at some point follow Australia and implement social media restrictions for children under 16.
“There’s no point in me coming in here and saying ‘We’re going to shut down the Internet’ or do anything else, because we’ll just get locked up inside the courthouse and it won’t do any good.”
Earlier, the opposition had urged the Irish government to ban “toxic” social media algorithms over the potential harm they could cause children.
Taoiseach Michael Martin said European Commission was already examining social media algorithms and outlining measures taken by the government to protect children online.
The issue was raised by Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns, who cited a High Court judge who compared children using the internet to “playing with matches”.
Ms Cairns acknowledged that regulating online sites was an “extremely complex issue” that governments around the world were grappling with, citing Australia’s social media ban for children.
He said he has issues with such restrictions, including the fact that current age restrictions do not apply online.
“Restricting access to social media sites does nothing about the recommender algorithms that are feeding kids toxic content,” he said.
He cited studies that found that social media platforms expose young teens to content about self-harm and suicide, and that teen boys are “bombarded” with misogynistic content.
Ms Cairns said: “Social media platforms now regularly show graphic, violent or racist videos to people who are not looking for that content.
“Not only is it having extremely harmful effects on children, but it is also corrosive to society at large.
“It’s spreading misinformation and hate through communities like wildfire.”
He asked whether the government would regulate the algorithms that deliver harmful and extremist content to people.
Mr Martin said responses to social media needed to be “coordinated, strong and rights-respecting”, and the response should include education, parental support and age-verification controls.
He said that a culture of strong self-esteem and self-respect must be built through the education system so that children can “be resilient and face whatever life throws at them”.
“We are also developing a secure, privacy-focused approach to age verification and we are working to incorporate age verification functionality into Ireland’s digital wallet under an EU project,” he said.
“This is about giving parents and young people a strong, government-backed mechanism to protect privacy, and a large-scale pilot project is planned for early next year.”
He said they had also reduced phone distractions in classrooms and that 462 schools had raised six million euros in funding aimed at reducing phone use in classrooms by purchasing materials such as phone pouches.
He acknowledged that the US believes the EU is excessively controlling “the digital space”, but added, “I don’t think we are”.
He added: “We will investigate all aspects of this, including influence and the use of algorithms to direct people to certain areas and that is clearly an issue.
“The European Commission has launched an investigation into these powerful algorithmic effects and particularly young users online, so the European Commission is already working on that aspect.”