Irish Examiner view: We must protect our kids from online harm

It is not enough to simply shrug and say the sheer ubiquity of social media means it is essentially an ungovernable wilderness. File Picture

The Government’s plan to restrict social media access for under-16s is a laudable one which appears to align with the intentions of several other countries.

Some of those are among our near neighbours in Europe — France backed legislation to ban children under 15 from social media only last month, while Greece is expected to follow suit. Spain has also announced plans for a social media ban for under-16s. Australia, meanwhile, implemented a social media ban for under-16s before Christmas.

It is interesting that while our Government has announced that it wishes to work in tandem with other European countries, it has also indicated that it will implement a ban unilaterally if necessary.

The arguments in favour of such restrictions are persuasive: Comparisons have already been drawn with other examples of age-restricted activities, from drinking alcohol to voting, while the ongoing controversy surrounding the use of AI-generated nude images online also adds weight to the argument for this ban.

We can expect pushback from the social media companies involved when it comes to this proposal. Some of these organisations have been caught repeatedly breaking data protection laws — misusing the private data of users, including younger users, for instance — while Meta has been specifically accused of targeting teens. It seems strange that any weight could be attached to the objections of such companies to a measure which is clearly intended to protect vulnerable users of social media, but this is the moral landscape in which we are now operating.

The normalisation of social media use means the prospect of restrictions such as this is almost unthinkable, while obvious teething problems, including the challenge of establishing age verification for online users, are also visible.

However, the seriousness of this problem demands a response. It is not enough to simply shrug and say the sheer ubiquity of social media means it is essentially an ungovernable wilderness. 

Our children and teens deserve better than being used by social media companies to generate bigger and bigger profits.

Nightlife protest: Hospitality trade under pressure

People gathered on the junction of Exhequer Street and Dame Court for an outside clubbing and protest event, following legal action by the Hoxton Hotel seeking an injunction against neighbouring live music venue Yamamori Izakaya. Picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

Protests have taken place in Dublin recently which are quite targeted and specific — both in location and intent.

The former Central Hotel on Exchequer St in the capital is now the Hoxton Hotel. Its near neighbour, Yamamori Izakaya on South Great George’s St, is a restaurant and bar which plays live music several nights a week.

Last week, Hoxton Hotel’s leaseholder, Trinity Hospitality, sought an injunction against Yamamori Izakaya over late-night noise. The hotel claims noise from the restaurant-bar is so loud that it cannot use over 30 of its bedrooms; the restaurant-bar has responded by offering to install sound-limiting devices and suggesting that the hotel be soundproofed.

Earlier this week, more than 100 people attended a protest in support of Yamamoto Izakaya outside the hotel, with DJs playing music and People Before Proft TD Richard Boyd Barrett addressing the crowd.

While this might appear a quintessentially Dublin story, it also has a national resonance.

For instance, this stand-off between bar and hotel illustrates the sharp decline in the nighttime economy across Ireland — not just in Dublin.

Last year, research suggested that the number of active nightclubs all over Ireland had fallen to just 83, a staggering drop of 84% from the year 2000 when there were over 500 nightclubs.

This is a significant change, one which perhaps has not drawn the same attention as challenges to the restaurant and pub trades. However, this decline nevertheless illustrates one aspect of the pressures facing the hospitality sector.

Due to the decline of nightclubs nationally, it can be presumed that associated noise issues are not that widespread.

The current stand-off in Dublin sheds some light on another challenge facing modern Ireland.

If we are serious about having people move from the suburbs to live in the centres of our cities and towns, how many of those prospective homes are truly suited to accommodation? While we may hope the continental model of “living over the shop” will revive our urban centres, considerations such as noise, access, and transport show that this may not be a seamless process — even with 80% of our nightclubs shut down.

Robert Duvall: A quiet force in ‘The Godfather’

The actor Robert Duvall passed away earlier this week at the age of 95.

In his long career, Duvall stole the show in a succession of classic movies. His first film role would have made him famous on its own — he played the reclusive and mysterious Boo Radley in the much-loved To Kill A Mockingbird as long ago as 1962.

Duvall was nominated for an Academy Award seven times, winning eventually for Tender Mercies in 1984, by which time his list of roles was already dazzling.

He was Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, a cynical TV executive in Network, and a convincingly slimy reporter who puzzles out Robert Redford’s secret in The Natural.

Even that partial list fails to do justice to turns as various as a cabbie in Bullitt and Tom Cruise’s adviser in Days of Thunder.

If pushed, readers may perhaps settle on his turn as Tom Hagen, the quiet consigliere in the first two Godfather movies advising Marlon Brando and Al Pacino in turn, as a favourite role. At one point, he calmly clarifies his ethnic status for an opponent: “I’m German-Irish.”

In truth, however, Duvall could be anything he wanted to be.