Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris has said he believes “we’re on the verge of a public health emergency” when it comes to social media.
Speaking to media at the European People’s Party (EPP) summit in Croatia on Saturday, Mr Harris said he had been talking to a number of other political leaders about social media and it was “very clear that the conversation we’re having here in Ireland is a conversation many are having right across their countries as well”.
“I think we’re on the verge of a public health emergency in terms of social media and the impact on young people in Ireland, Europe and across the world,” he said.
“I think social media is almost experimenting with the minds and brains of young people and that can’t be tolerated.”
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Mr Harris said he believed Ireland needed to “bring in restrictions and prohibit the use of social media among people under a certain age”.
“We do this in so many areas. You can’t drive a car, you can’t have an alcoholic drink, you can’t smoke until a certain age,” he said.
Last week, he called for prohibiting the use of social media by those under 16, referencing the Data Protection Act 2018, which set the digital age of consent at 16.
This would mean online service providers like social media platforms would need to obtain the consent of the child’s parents, as they rely on consent as the legal basis for processing personal data.
At the EPP summit, Mr Harris said he was “really struck by” initiatives around social media, which a number of other European countries were considering, and which Ireland should also consider, he said.
[ I met an extraordinary man this week. Simon has never owned a mobile phoneOpens in new window ]
Separately, the Tánaiste said he had an opportunity to engage with the German chancellor, the Greek prime minister, the president of the European Commission and the prime minister of Poland “to outline Ireland’s desire to use our presidency of the Council of the European Union this year to try and make Europe more competitive”.
“We can’t just be talking about what happens in the White House ... We have to look at what we can do in our own country and in Europe to make our country and the European Union more competitive,” he said.
Geo-political events of the past couple of weeks, and the past year, particularly in relation to US president Donald Trump’s Greenland tariff crisis, “has to be a wake-up call”.
“We have to be more self-reliant, and there’s a real appetite for that,” he said.
