An Oireachtas Committee has stopped short of recommending a ban on social media for under-16s but has said “harmful” social media recommender algorithms should be turned off and there should be a ban on infinite-scrolling features on platforms.
The Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport has published a report on the regulation of online platforms and supports to improve online safety.
The report recommends requiring platforms to disable recommender algorithms entirely for children and by default for people over 18.
The committee recommends a ban on infinite-scroll and continuous-feed design and a ban or limiting of auto-play video features.
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The report does not recommend a ban on social media use for under 16s of the kind proposed by Government Ministers in recent months.
The recommendations do include considering the implementation of a “privacy-preserving, risk-based age classification system”.
At the launch of the report, committee chairman Alan Kelly said it had been produced following “intensive examination and scrutiny of social media platforms and ecommerce companies and the algorithms they use”.
The committee heard from organisations such as CyberSafeKids and the Children’s Rights Alliance as well as tech companies such as Google and TikTok during its deliberations.
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Kelly said: “There has been much said about a proposed ban on the use of social media by under 16s as has already been legislated for, for instance, in Australia. As a committee, we have not in any way recommended that Ireland follow this path.”
He said that at no time during the committee’s hearings was a social media ban for under 16s recommended by any of the expert witnesses.
Kelly said there had been difficulties in implementing bans and potential risks “including pushing children into unregulated spaces, and the potential for rowing back of initiatives to make the internet a safer place for all, if children are banned”.
He also said it had been made clear to the committee that use of a VPN (virtual private network) would be a simple way to get around any under-16 ban.
Views on such a ban varied among committee members.
Fianna Fáil Senator Alison Comyn said she had started the process wanting to look at the idea of a social media ban for under-16s but said “we listened to the experts” and “I bow to the experts”. She said the idea should be kept open.
Fine Gael TD Micheál Carrigy said he was a “strong believer in the ban”, saying that until online platforms were safe, children should not be on them.
Independent Senator Rónán Mullen had tabled an amendment to the report recommending a minimum age of 16 for the creation of a social media account. His amendment was discussed by the committee but not included in the report.
Mullen said he agreed with the recommendations included in the final report but said there had been an “easy and facile dismissal of the idea of a social media ban”.
He argued there had been “no significant engagement with parents” and it was “far too early” to say the ban on social media accounts for under 16s in Australia was not working.
Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney highlighted a recommendation in the report on age classification, saying it was a “mechanism that can be reviewed and situated within a broader response to online harms”.
Kelly said the committee was cross-party and he was “not going to get into challenging Government” in relation to proposals for a social media ban for under-16s, adding: “They will do what they see fit.”
Last week, Minister for Media Patrick O’Donovan told the Dáil he was exploring options for introducing restrictions on social media use for young people under 16.
He said: “It is Government policy and my firm belief that there should be a restriction at EU level”. O’Donovan added that if a common approach were not achieved at EU level, “I will seek Government approval to take action at a national level”. Tánaiste Simon Harris made similar remarks in February.
The report also recommends that artificial intelligence be regulated with “safety-by-design” standards and that chatbots and generative AI be classified as “high risk”, with a ban on AI tools that facilitate image-based abuse.
There should also be a requirement to visibly label AI-generated content, says the report.
The committee recommends an increase in the fines and penalties that Coimisiún na Meán, the Media Commission, can levy on social media companies that breach the Online Safety Code.
