Irish watchdog to prioritise child safety online in 2025
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The Irish Coimisiún na Meán, a national regulator tasked with overseeing the Digital Services Act (DSA) in Ireland, has made child safety an enforcement priority in 2025, according to its work program
published
on Thursday.
On a national level, the regulator said it will ensure that platforms meet their obligations to keep children safe online through the implementation and supervision of the Online Safety Framework.
Provisions restricting harmful content such as cyberbullying, promotion of self-harm or suicide and promotion of eating disorders, dangerous challenges and detailed provisions in relation to age assurance and parental controls, come into effect in July.
The DSA – which started applying to all platforms in February of 2024 – obliges companies, among others, to comply with transparency and election integrity requirements.
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The European Commission oversees the 25 largest online platforms, those that have more than 45 million users per month, while the national watchdogs oversee all platforms below that threshold.
Coimisiún na Meán sits as the vice-chair of an EU working group developing guidelines on protecting children under the DSA. Those guidelines are expected this year.
'We will continue our involvement in some of the European Commission's open investigations under the DSA which are looking at issues relevant to children,' the work program said.
The Commission has opened a number of investigations into potential breaches of the DSA, but none of these probes have been wrapped up yet.
Last year, it began investigating Meta's Facebook and Instagram because it suspects that their algorithms may stimulate behavioural addictions in children, as well as create so-called 'rabbit-hole effects'.
In addition, the Commission is also
concerned
about age-assurance and verification methods put in place by Meta.
Last month, a senior official at the Coimisiún na Meán
warned
that EU regulators need a common approach in enforcing the online platform rules, because the DSA leaves room for interpretation.
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