Web ‘catfish’ fear for kids
CALL TO BOOST AGE VERIFICATION
EDUCATION Minister Norma Foley has expressed concerns about children being “catfished” and groomed by online predators due to lacklustre age verification methods on social media.
She also expressed shock at the “2,500 per cent increase” in the number of child sexual abuse materials being removed from the internet by Ireland’s national centre for combatting illegal content online over the last five years.
Minister Foley has written to Niamh Hodenett, the Online Safety Commissioner, expressing concerns about the number of under-13s accessing social media.
In her letter, she also noted a growing number of children are being “catfished”, which is when someone is targeted online by a fake profile.
Minister Foley wrote: “There is also growing evidence that the prevalence of smartphone use by children has created a new, horrifying opportunity for them to be groomed or ‘catfished’ by online predators using false identities.
“The Online Harms Evidence Review stated there has been a particularly pronounced rise in recent years in so-called ‘self-generated’ sexual material, whereby children are coerced into producing sexual imagery of themselves.
“I was shocked to learn that Hotline.ie, Ireland’s national centre for combatting illegal content online, had to remove 13,799 pieces of confirmed child sexual abuse material in 2022.
“This is an increase of more than 2,500 per cent since 2017, when 524 pieces of confirmed child sexual abuse material were removed.”
Ms Foley stated she believes it is “no longer tenable” for social media platforms to “stand idly by” and that they “must implement a robust age verification system of their own to protect children from inappropriate content and online predators”.
Duty
She added that they have a “duty of care to young people to do this”.
Ms Foley said while Twitter/X, Snapchat and Facebook have age limits of 13, they do not require photo identification to verify ages. She added: “I am aware of many primary school children who are using these social media apps despite being aged under 13. This is clear proof that the current system of age verification is broken.”