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Government There have been calls to ban “toxic” social media algorithms over the potential harm they can cause children.
Taoiseach Michael Martin said European Commission was already examining social media algorithms and ireland Next year a larger pilot of a digital wallet will be run which will be used to verify the age of users.
This issue was raised by social democrat leader Holly Cairns, who cited high court The judge compared children having unrestricted access to 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, referencing Australia this week banning social media for children under 16.
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.
“This is about giving parents and young people strong, government-backed mechanisms 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 said the US believed the EU was excessively regulating “the digital space”, to which Mr Martin said “I don’t think we’re doing that”.
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.”