Technology companies are \u201cnot doing enough\u201d to protect children online, the T\u00e1naiste has said, as he accused them of \u201cexperimenting with the mental health\u201d of young people.<\/p>\n
Simon Harris has said he would like to set 16 as the minimum age for which social media access is permitted but said he is \u201centirely open to discussions\u201d given that other countries have suggested 15.<\/p>\n
His comments came as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said there is a need for \u201cage-appropriate restrictions to platforms\u201d.<\/p>\n
Harris said 16 was the digital age of consent under the Data Protection Act 2018.<\/p>\n
This means online service providers like social media platforms, which rely on consent as the legal basis for processing personal data, must obtain the consent of the child\u2019s parents if they are under 16.<\/p>\n
Harris said: \u201cI believe social media companies are experimenting with the mental health of our young people.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThese technology companies themselves have the ability to do it tomorrow if they wanted, they\u2019ve just chosen not to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the most frustrating thing. They have the technology, they\u2019re technology companies, to do it, and they\u2019ve chosen not to. That worries me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris said it was the Government\u2019s preference to get agreement on the matter on an EU level, but added Ireland had a right to act alone if it wished to.<\/p>\n
He told reporters at the Intel campus in Leixlip, Co Kildare: \u201cWe want to protect childhood here, and this should be seen as a good thing \u2013 not a negative thing, a good thing to give children back their childhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut look, I\u2019m open to ideas. I\u2019m open to how they do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m also open to the technology companies coming forward and taking action.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t need any European Commission report or any law to protect our children online today \u2013 and they\u2019re not doing enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Technology companies are \u201cnot doing enough\u201d to protect children online, the T\u00e1naiste has said, as he accused them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":["post-548249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}