TECH GIANTS SNUB BID FOR ONLINE SAFETY
Firms reject education Minister’s plea for more child protection
BY
SOCIAL media giants and phone companies have refused a request for greater measures to protect children online.
Education Minister Norma Foley had asked for greater controls on age verification and for network firms to support parents in not buying phones for primary school children.
She emphasised that the Department was not anti-phone, and though social media was a “wonderful gift”, it comes with an “enormous responsibility and a duty of care”.
The minister and her officials met representatives from Meta, Google, Microsoft, Tiktok, Three Ireland, Vodafone, Tesco and Ibec.
The social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, did not attend.
She said there was “very robust engagement” and a “very frank and open” discussion at the meeting, where “adult-tochild” “sextortion”, recommendation algorithms, and AI were discussed.
Minister Foley added:
“There were two that I was very keen to advance, and the first one was in the area of age verification.
“I’m very conscious that in particular, social media providers would tell us they have a mandate around the 13 years of age, but I think we all know that there are children younger than 13 accessing these platforms. “And I know it from my own experience, I know from engaging with parents, I know from engaging with schools, that they would identify it as a clear issue for them that there are children much, much younger than 13.
“I did seek an undertaking from them that they would facilitate age verification,
whatever form that might take. I’m not prescriptive on the mechanism, but that we will have clear age verification because we know that children are well able to jump over that particular requirement. That wasn’t forthcoming at present.
“The other issue I very specifically raised, particularly with telecommunication representatives, was around their willingness to support in principle, the position we have taken in the Department of Education to support parents to hold off from purchasing smartphones for children while they’re at primary school.
“And again, I’d have to say, that wasn’t forthcoming at this point in time.”
When asked what the companies said as to why they would not commit to those requests, Ms Foley said that it was argued it was “a parent’s prerogative” to restrict smartphones for children.