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TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has defended the government’s decision to set the digital age of consent at 13, saying it was based on advice from children’s charities and the Children’s Ombudsman.
However, he said he understands that the issue is a cause of concern for parents.
The digital age of consent, which was agreed by the Cabinet last summer, refers to the age from which it is legal for data controllers to hold data gathered on children and teenagers. For children under the age of 13, parental consent will be required.
It could be argued that 13 has been the de facto age of digital consent for some time in Ireland – it’s the minimum age for setting up a Facebook account, for example. However, the age had to be officially set before the EU General Data Protection Regulation comes into effect on 25 May 2018.
Keeping children safe online has been in the spotlight recently after a number of high profile cases, and Communications Minister Denis Naughten recently said the government is moving towards appointing a Digital Safety Commissioner.
Speaking today, Varadkar said: “We need to protect our children, that is always the most important thing, and protect them from predators who can now use the internet to get access to children.”
Summit
The Taoiseach said Naughten is organising a summit that will be held in March and bring together stakeholders such as the gardaí, education providers and tech companies to “put together a package of measures and make sure that our children are kept safe from people who use the internet to harm them”.
We have to be open to any proposal that is made but, as is always the case, when you consider making something illegal you have to consider the penalties and I can’t imagine prosecuting an 11-year-old for having a phone.
“The the question is then, do you prosecute their parents? So it’s the type of thing we have to think through and I can understand the need for action in this area, but we need to ensure it is proportionate.”
Last week, a Dublin man who possessed thousands of images of child sex abuse and coerced young girls to send him sexually graphic pictures and videos of themselves was jailed for seven-and-a-half years.
Matthew Horan, 26, used Skype, Snapchat, Instagram and Kik, an anonymous instant messaging application, to send and receive the images from six identified child users in Ireland and nine unknown users around the world.
With reporting by Christina Finn
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itl be a rag in whatever format it comes. remember when it used to be a good paper
All they have to do now is change the banner from green to red and they’re all set.
I too remember when it was a decent newspaper.
If it looks like the gutter press, waddles like the gutter press and quacks like the gutter press, then ….
Great photograph of seanie i see as usual no comment allowed on him , i was in the high court yesterday and i heard a solicitor who was representing a man from clonmel against the revenue say to the judge that her client had a partner in the form of a director of ANGLO IRISH BANK that he was unaware of ,why is the media shying away from these stories
Finally it admits its true nature: tabloid.
The indo is a rag. Ok they sell loads of papers but mcDonalds sell loads of happy meals. Still sh1te though.
Irish Times or the Examiner.
The info is for the hard of learning who need to be told what to think.
Who cares would not even use it as toilet paper if lost in the woods.
Yeah it’s crap ha ha!
The Indo is just a step above a tabloid. As for the Sunday Independent, it seems to be a paper that prides itself on lack of news and running stories that are blatantly made up.
I remember the campaign that the Sindo carried on against Hume/Adams. Quite apart from the vitriolic tripe being spouted by Dunphy, O’Hanlon and their ilk, it actually put people’s lives at real risk just to sell their tawdry rag of a publication.
Truly disgraceful.
How did the journalism manage to get so lazy in that paper. Some of it is fox news worthy.
More appropriate size for their recent standard of journalism.
Thank god, they were so awkward!!
They’ll never fit Bono’s head on the cover again.
Get rid of it altogether. It’s become a real Fiann Fail mouth piece in recent years. If its not careful it will end up like the original Fianna Fail rag, The Irish Press.
I guess Broadsheet.ie is the only broadsheet left in the country.
Think the times and examiner are still pretty good.
It’s been tabloid for years anyway
I don’t understand how any news papers are still in business … Smart phones and apps will unfortunately kill the paper trade …
Old people. People who aren’t very knowlegable when it comes to technology and people who just prefer to read a printed newspaper.
Damn. I’ll have less paper to wrap me chips in
Not half as good a paper as it used to be and its blatant disregard of “fadas” on Irish words is highly ignorant on both its papers and app
It wraps itself in Journalists if the people. Dunphy, Shane Ross, etc. They sell themselves as having a social conscience yet in Shane Ross case has multiple incomes. If he is working hard as a TD then how has he the time to write for this rag?
Not worthy of coming in toilet paper format…
Even the online version is full of useless gossip on celebs and half celebs
Wish they’d scrap the entire paper – what a rag
I actually the Indo is quite a good newspaper,
The info? If only.
The indo.
Breaking new:
Apple are going to scrap the broadsheet iPad Retina in favour of the broad-s-h-i-t iPad Mini.
Please don’t hold me accountable for this scoop. It was written under the impression that today is the last day on earth for all of us.
Should be easier to handle for their drooling readers.
With an aging population (and my grandparents the only people I know who still buy it regularly) they should keep the broadsheet and just make the font size bigger!!
Good! All those broadsheets should be made in compact format! Broadsheets are near impossible to relax with while reading
And then there was only The Times…
Also rumor is that a Page 3 special feature entitled ‘The MILFs o’ Fianna Fáil’ will be coming in the new year…
Another nail in the coffin in Irish journalism.
But then again, was it ever alive? Certainly not when it comes to Denis O’Brien’s ”empire” and RTÉ.
It’s been a tabloid for years now. Nice that they’ve accepted that fact now.
Fine Gael blue shirt indo rag to equal the defunct newspaper the Irish Press Dev. Rag and apologists for the golden circle brigade.hope it closes up soon.
Sure who needs papers these days with sites like the journal being so accessible??
The days of dead tree editions of all newspapers are numbered. I think the whole model is in jeopardy, the Irish Times and The Indo, regardless of your opinion of them need to change to survive. I think it’s only a matter of time before they’re online only.
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