Children in Kilkenny only a few clicks away from violent, graphic and pornographic content

Ireland South MEP candidate, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, an experienced family barrister of 27 years, has called for wide ranging actions to safeguard our children from harmful, violent and sexual content online.

She said our children are only ever a few clicks away from sexual exploitation, violence, bullying, gambling and harmful content online.

In a week where Meta has lowered the age at which children can join WhatsApp from 16 to 13, Ní Mhurchú said that the tech giants are prioritising profit over protection. 

She described how easy it is to open a Tik Tok account and that any 8 year old can set up a Tik Tok account in just 5 clicks, without any proper age verification. 

Ní Mhurchú has called for robust new age verification for children who use online social media accounts, criminal liability for the executives of social media companies found guilty of exposing our children to harmful content and new resources for Coimisiún na Meán to police and enforce the Digital Services Act. 

"It is essential that we approach this from a pan European perspective to avoid a series of fragmented national strategies," she said.

"Ireland, and Irish MEPS, need to play a leading role on child protection because we are home to most of the world’s largest tech companies and it is our regulators who are responsible for policing the activities of the social media and tech giants like Google, Meta, Tik Tok and Instagram.

"Self declaration age verification is just not working. This morning an 8 year family member of one of our team demonstrated how easy it is to create a Tik Tok account with just a few clicks.

"The only age verification process the child had to get past was to enter a false date of birth. Within a few clicks, the 8 year old had created a new Tic Tok account. Naturally, we deleted it immediately."

According to Ní Mhurchú, tech platforms have flaunted regulations designed to protect our children from harmful content.

She claims that social media giants really won’t start to implement the changes we need until we introduce the possibility of criminal sanction for executives who oversee the distribution of illegal, harmful, violent and pornographic content to children across Europe on their platforms. 

"Trying hard is not good enough," she said.

"The social media giants have been dragging their heels for too long now and if it is the threat of criminal sanction that brings the top executives to the table, so be it."

A recent British study, referenced by the BBC, found that sexism is on the rise in schools because of harmful content on children's phones.

The study referenced young boys watching 'aggressive and violent pornography' and influencer content that 'completely distorts their view of women'.  

A recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that the proportion of adolescents who reported being cyberbullied has increased since 2018, from 12% to 15% for boys and 13% to 16% for girls. 

The survey referenced young people spending up to 6 hours a day on their phones. 

Ní Mhurchú encourages anyone encountering inappropriate content online to report it to Hotline.ie, an Irish national reporting centre where members of the public can securely, anonymously, and confidentially report concerns in respect of illegal content online.

The organisation received 31,068 reports of illegal or inappropriate content in 2022, the highest number of reports on record to date.