Latest news with #OnlineSafetyCode
Irish Examiner
28-04-2025
- Irish Examiner
Several social media platforms yet to share online safety plans with regulator
Major social platforms such as X and Reddit have yet to tell the media regulator how they will clamp down on children watching pornographic content on their sites, ahead of a July deadline for the introduction of age checks. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Online safety commissioner Niamh Hodnett said the platforms that Coimisiún na Meán must regulate carry 'different risks'. Ms Hodnett also hinted that investigations may soon be forthcoming into some of the big tech giants with European headquarters in Ireland. 'There's been extensive engagement with these platforms since [last year],' she said. 'If the supervisory team come to the view they've reached a dead end or the end of the road in relation to supervisory dialogue, and the behaviours haven't changed, then the matter gets escalated to the enforcement team, who then open the matter for investigation.' In July, the second part of Coimisiún na Meán's Online Safety Code comes into force. It obliges YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Udemy, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter) to take specific actions to combat harmful content such as cyber bullying, the promotion of eating disorders, and promotion of self-harm and suicide. They must also introduce age verification checks to ensure those under the age of 18 cannot view pornography or extreme violence on their platforms. The regulator has not been prescriptive on what form this age verification should take, but said it must be robust and ticking a box to say you are overage would not be sufficient. Previously, its executive chair Jeremy Godfrey told the Irish Examiner that a requirement for a person to show their passport and then a selfie to verify they are the person on the ID could be described as a 'gold standard'. Sanctions for breaches of the code can run into the tens or hundreds of millions of euro. X, Reddit, and Tumblr have taken separate judicial reviews in the High Court against the Online Safety Code. While Reddit and Tumblr failed in these bids, X's case is set to be heard in June, just a month before the code is set to apply to the site. 'In relation to the three platforms in question, no we haven't had sight of what exactly their proposed plans are but nor do we have communication that they're absolutely not going to do it,' she said. Ms Hodnett added there is no 'indicative timeline' for it launching investigations into particular firms if they believe it to be breaching its obligations but said that discussions with these platforms are ongoing. 'We said what's key for us is getting the behavioural change, rather than the big fines,' she said. 'But, of course, if we're not seeing the behavioural change, we will have to resort to investigation and enforcement. Again, not prejudging anything.' Read More Government urged to support bill forcing social media firms to turn off 'addictive' algorithms for children
Irish Examiner
25-04-2025
- Irish Examiner
Age verification measures to ensure online safety to start in July
Age verification measures to watch pornography or extremely violent content on platforms in this jurisdiction will come into effect in July, despite the regulator receiving 'pushback' from some big tech firms, it has said. Coimisiun Na Meán said that measures included in the Online Safety Code which take effect this summer also include restrictions on harmful content such as cyber bullying, the promotion of eating disorders and promotion of self-harm and suicide. Online Safety Commissioner Niamh Hodnett said: 'Through all of these actions, we want to ensure that children and young people can enjoy the benefits that media brings to them, and that regulated entities take proportionate steps to protect them from being harmed.' In terms of age assurance, the regulator has previously said that simply ticking a box to say you're over the age of 18 will be insufficient under the code. Platforms to which the Online Safety Code applies include YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Udemy, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter). Sanctions for breaches of the code can run into the tens or hundreds of millions of euro. X, Reddit and Tumblr have taken judicial reviews against the code, with the latter two failing in their High Court bids. In the case of X, it accused Coimisiún na Meán of 'regulatory overreach' in its approach. That judicial review is set for hearing in June. Digital Services Commissioner John Evans said that, based on discussions with these platforms, they already have a 'sense of what direction different players are going and what our approach might be'. He also said that 'different platforms have different attitudes' to the code, and that the regulator has been subject to 'pushback' from some platforms regarding the obligations being put upon them. Ms Hodnett added that some had come to them 'voluntarily' to ask for guidance on how to ensure age assurance in a 'privacy compliant way'. 'That hard supervision will start in July in this regard,' she said, adding that the regulator also has concerns around AI-generated child abuse imagery being shared online.
Irish Daily Mirror
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Irish Daily Mirror
Irish media regulator has 'arsenal of tools' to tackle online child sex material
Ireland's media regulator says it has a "full arsenal of tools" to target social media sites that publish and promote child sex abuse material and AI-generated sex abuse images. Coimisiun na Mean, which published a three-year strategy and a 2025 work programme on Thursday, said that sex abuse images appearing online are increasing in their prevalence. Niamh Hodnett, the coimisiun's online safety commissioner, said it holds social media platforms to account under the Online Safety Framework. Child sex abuse material is covered by the Digital Services Act (DSA). The coimisiun said that two of its priorities under its revised strategy include an election integrity strategy and protections for children at risk of online harm. It will soon develop a pilot programme for children at imminent risk of harm from online content, as well as develop an election integrity strategy across all media sources, and create educational materials relating to online hate. Speaking at its offices in south Dublin on Thursday, Ms Hodnett said that further online protection for children will begin in July this year when the final part of the Online Safety Code comes into effect. "This includes restricting harmful video content such as cyber-bullying, the promotion of eating or feeding disorders, the promotion of self-harm or suicide, as well as dangerous challenges," she said. "There are detailed provisions for age assurance and parental controls in relation to adult content. We'll continue to supervise platforms with respect to their compliance with the Online Safety framework. "The pilot programme is to inform our approach as to how we can best protect children online with our strategic outcome. "There was an expert report prepared in relation to individual complaints, and that advised waiting a year from when the Online Safety Code is in place before we look to putting in place an individual complaints framework and what that would look like, starting with children. "We hope, through this pilot programme, to address children who are in imminent danger and imminent harm in a systematic way. "We do it at the moment on an ad hoc basis. Indeed, even yesterday evening, my colleague John (Evans) was dealing with a priority one instance of a child in harm. "At the moment, when those types of contacts come into our contact centre, they're given priority one status, and we deal with them. But what that pilot scheme would do is to look at doing that in a systemic way, so that's something we're scoping out, and that will then inform our future work in relation to individual complaints." Ms Hodnett said they are becoming increasingly concerned about AI-generated child sex abuse material. "It's ever-increasing in its prevalence and there's two types we're concerned about. One is self-generated child sex abuse material, so that would be generated by children, often in their bedroom unbeknownst to their parents, for extortion or other purposes. "Then the other we're concerned about is AI-generated child sex abuse material. So this is being generated by artificial intelligence. Both are increasing in prevalence, and we're very concerned about that. "We are responsible for holding the platforms to account under the Online Safety Framework. Child sex abuse material is covered by the Digital Services Act, so in terms of our close supervision of the platforms, that's an area that we engage with them regularly on, and that we're very concerned about. "We have the full arsenal of tools within our playbook to be able to deal with that." She said the coimisiun recently met with OpenAI, in which they discussed concerns about online safety, including AI-generated sex abuse images. John Evans, the Digital Service Commissioner, said that OpenAI's user numbers are growing. He said: "As part of our supervision programme, we would have relationships with all of the platforms. So, say we have 15 of the 25 very large online platforms based in Ireland. So we have relationships with all of those. "Some of the others are getting bigger. So OpenAI, for example, its user numbers have been growing. "We pay attention to how they're moving, and how important they become in the ecosystem in terms of the user numbers, or the more risky they become as we perceive them because of the kind of content that they're able to provide. We will pay more and more closer attention to them. "It's a risk-based approach to supervision, there's something like 150 or so platforms out there. So we need a way of focusing our activity." Mr Evans said that when engaging with large tech firms, it would rather see a change in their behaviour rather than threatening large companies with enforcement measures or big fines. However, he said the coimisiun and the European Commission are using the "sharper tools" in their toolbox, including the investigations into some social media companies.
The Irish Sun
22-04-2025
- Politics
- The Irish Sun
‘Parents are worried' – New warning over ‘toxic' social media algorithms & bill to stop ‘concerning' children's feeds
SOCIAL media companies would be banned from using 'toxic' algorithms on children under the age of 18 as part of a new bill aimed at protecting the mental health of young people. Platforms such as Advertisement 2 People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy believes toxic content online is leading to an epidemic of mental health issues Credit: Alamy 2 Social media companies would be banned from using 'toxic' algorithms on children under the new bill Credit: Getty Images - Getty This can lead to a situation where someone who has clicked a video about dangerous material such as self harm, extremism or porn being bombarded with similar content on their People Before Profit have launched a new bill calling on social media companies to not use these recommender algorithms for users under the age of 18. The Online Safety (Recommender Algorithms) Bill 2025 would rule that video platforms must People Before Profit TD Advertisement READ MORE IRISH NEWS He said: 'Toxic social media content is driving an epidemic of 'Parents are worried about the impact of toxic social media content on their children and women, people of colour and LGBTQ+ people are put at risk by the role of recommender algorithms in spreading misogyny, racism, homophobia and transphobia. 'Three-quarters of the public believe that there should be stronger regulation of social media algorithms. 'Last year Coimisiun na Meain's draft Online Safety Code included a recommendation to turn off recommender algorithms by default. Advertisement MOST READ IN THE IRISH SUN Latest 'However, this was scrapped following lobbying by the big tech companies whose profits depend on keeping people scrolling for longer so they can sell them advertising.' The bill is being backed by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties who have raised concerns about the type of content pushed towards children by these algorithms. The Council's Dr Johnny Ryan said: 'All parties should be gravely concerned by social media recommender algorithms. 'They push self-harm and suicide in to children's social feeds, and artificially amplify extremism and political polarisation'. Advertisement 'WHY HAS THIS BEEN ALLOWED?' Niamh McDonald, from the Hope and Courage Collective, told the press conference that people's real lives are "affected by what plays out online". She continued: "Right now social media and video platforms recommend illegal, hateful and violent content for people to see. "It is a business model that prioritises emotionally manipulative content through algorithms that drive sharing and engagement. "This distorts what people believe to be true, manipulates emotions and heightens tensions, and in cases breaks laws.' Advertisement Ruth Coppinger concluded: "Why has this been allowed happen? Why has the manosphere been allowed operate unchecked with such dangerous consequences for girls, women and LGBTQ people? "Governments have been in thrall to the social media giants who profit from the manosphere."
