Minister lambastes European Commission for failing to limit children's access to harmful online content

Communications minister Patrick O'Donovan said he is concerned about children being able to access harmful material, arguing that 'you wouldn't allow a child into a bar to sit up at the counter and drink gin and tonic'.

Communications minister Patrick O’Donovan has criticised Europe’s inaction on limiting children’s access to harmful online content.

He said Europe should be stopping “large companies from making immoral sums of money on the backs of exploiting children”.

The Fine Gael minister made the comments as he confirmed a pilot project will be launched in 2026 to develop a trusted age verification tool through the digital wallet.

The pilot will involve 2,000 people over and under 18, proving that “when they try and navigate their way onto different platforms, their age is properly verified”.

Mr O’Donovan said Ireland cannot do what Australia has done and introduce a social media ban for all under 16s due to its place in the European single market.

He lambasted the European Commission for not doing more, saying it was “disappointing” that Ireland had to “act on our own”.

“There are competencies that we act, supposedly, collectively as a European Union,” he said.

A pilot project will be launched in 2026 to develop a trusted age verification tool through the digital wallet.

“There is no greater responsibility politicians — whether they're appointed in the commission, are elected to the parliament or the Oireachtas —
could have than to protect our children and our young people.

The failure of the commission and the failure of the European institutions to act in singular voice in this is to our collective shame.

He said there is still an "opportunity to right that wrong". 

"I hope that during our presidency, or during the Cypriot presidency, that stock will be taken of what Ireland is doing, and maybe the European Commission might get out ahead of us and actually do the things that parents all over the European Union are asking should be done, which is to protect our kids online and stop large companies from making immoral sums of money on the backs of exploiting children.”

Mr O’Donovan said he is concerned about children being able to access harmful material, arguing that “you wouldn't allow a child into a bar to sit up at the counter and drink gin and tonic”.

On Tuesday, a High Court judge expressed concerns about children’s unsupervised access to the internet while sentencing a teenager who was 13 years old when he sexually abused his six-year-old sister.

The boy, now 16, took photographs of the child naked and uploaded images to a social media website.

The boy had unsupervised access to the internet from a very young age and told gardaí that he first viewed pornography when he was aged six.

Mr O’Donovan said that cases of this nature are “exactly why we are doing what we are doing”.

“Parents have a duty of care as well, but parents can't do everything on their own,” he said.

“As a parent and as a teacher, but more importantly in this role as minister with responsibility for it, it disappoints me that we're in a situation where we have to act on our own over the last number of years, that we haven't got to consensus in Europe with regard to how we move forward on this.”