Social media: Irish and French ministers press for Europe-wide age rule to protect children

Ireland's media minister Patrick O'Donovan and French digital affairs minister Clara Chappaz have called on the European Commission to enforce age verification 

The move by Limerick County TD and media minister Patrick O'Donovan comes alongside the Coimisiún na Meán code which aims to prevent children from accessing pornography or gratuitous violence online. File picture: Niall Carson/PA

A letter has been sent to the European Commission calling for the introduction of mandatory age verification for access to social media.

Media minister Patrick O'Donovan, who signed the letter alongside French digital affairs minister Clara Chappaz, said it is time to take action and initiate a European response to the issue.

Given the considerable and potentially negative effects of social networks on young people, Mr O'Donovan called for the mandatory age verification to be included in the guidelines on the protection of minors online within the framework of the Digital Services Act.

The Fine Gael minister and Ms Chappaz are seeking an urgent meeting with the commission to progress dialogue.

Patrick O'Donovan and his French counterpart Clara Chappaz, above, co-signed the letter to the European Commission and are seeking other EU states to join their bid to protect minors from harmful social media content.  File picture

They also want their letter to be co-signed by the relevant minsters of other EU states.

O'Donovan met social media firms

Separately, the minister met with social media platforms in Dublin on Monday where a "productive" discussion was had.

Mr O'Donovan outlined to the companies that the damage social media does to young people and society in general is very worrying, saying that his singular focus is on protecting children from harmful online content.

He said age verification must be a priority for platforms and outlines his intention to work across government and with all stakeholders to ensure children could enjoy the benefits of connectivity while being safe from harmful or illegal content online.

The representatives for the platforms set out the work they had done and were continuing to do to address concerns.

Coimisiún na Meán code

A new code, set out by broadcasting regulator Coimisiún na Meán, is aimed at protecting children online, with binding rules that seek to prevent harmful content such as cyberbullying, racism, or incitement to hatred.

These rules will require platforms to introduce robust age verification — such as verifying a passport — to prevent children from accessing pornography or gratuitous violence online.

If a company breaks the new code, fines of €20m, or 10% of their turnover, could apply.

The code itself has received pushback from some tech firms, with a number of companies, including X, Reddit, and Tumblr, taking judicial reviews against the code.

Both Reddit and Tumblr failed in their High Court cases.

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.

In April, 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.