Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE IRISH GOVERNMENT will consider a similar system to the UK’s so-called ‘porn block’ law as part of new legislation on online safety.
As part of legislation passed in the UK in 2017, pornography sites will be expected, from 15 July, to have a robust age-verification system in place to ensure its UK users are over 18.
Although this will be regulated by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the sites themselves will be allowed to decide exactly how they do it.
Options include requiring adult users to buy a special card over the counter at a newsagents, where they will be asked to show photo ID to verify their age. The card will have a code on it that can be used to access the site.
Some sites will ask users to provide a scan of a passport or driver’s licence which will then be verified by a third party while others may ask for credit card details as proof a person is over 18.
In the most recent episode of The Explainer podcast, TheJournal.ie took a look at this UK legislation and the likelihood that Ireland will follow suit.
The Explainer / SoundCloud
This year the Department of Communications launched a public consultation on new law to regulate harmful content online.
This consultation has now closed and the department told TheJournal.ie that the results are being examined in preparation for the development of legislation.
“Age verification will be considered in the context of the forthcoming legislation,” a spokesperson said.
How effective is the UK law expected to be?
Critics of the new UK restrictions have pointed out that teenagers could still easily bypass them, or just use porn-hosting platforms that are not covered by the law.
Sites like Twitter, Reddit and Imgur, for example, will not have to administer the scheme as more than one third of a site’s content must be pornographic to bring it under the legislation.
TheJournal.ie did a quick internet search of the phrase ‘porn on Twitter’ to test how accessible this content is on the platform and was served a long list of profiles that contained uncensored explicit images and videos.
Even on sites that are affected, teens would still be able to use virtual private networks (VPNs), which make it seem like your computer is located elsewhere.
Data protection
There are concerns about data leaks because the government is not telling pornography websites how to verify age. That will be up to the individual sites and they will be responsible for the data they collect as part of this.
Experts have said it may lead to people being outed if a site collects their email addresses and also links those in its data collation with their preferences or searches. This is the kind of information that could, in theory, be used to extort money from people.
Caroline West, a doctoral scholar in sexuality at DCU, told The Explainer that many people may not be comfortable with giving their passport details to these kinds of websites.
Sites like that are really targeted by moral campaigners who are opposed to porn even existing in the first place so if you have this treasure trove of data of people’s personal details just sitting there waiting to be hacked, that’s very attractive to a lot of hackers or to a lot of people who want to shame people for their porn use.
She referenced the 2015 leak by hackers of the names of 30 million people who had used infidelity website Ashley Madison. Serious shortcomings were identified in the site’s security afterwards and it was subsequently fined $1.6 million for the data breach.
Despite the massive breach, thousands of people are still signing up to the site every day.
“And do we really want people in the government or specific agencies knowing what we as consenting adults are looking at on the internet?” West said. “Adults should be able to keep their fantasies to themselves unless they consent to sharing it so it’s quite a risk for adults.”
Mindgeek, the company which owns PornHub, YouPorn and RedTube, has developed its own system called AgeID which it hopes will be adopted by others. This system involves adults having to upload scans of their passports or drivers licences.
These documents are then verified by a third-party. All of the information will be encrypted and the company has said the system will not keep track of how each user’s accounts are used. AgeID said the way its method of storing login and password information works means it doesn’t have a database of email addresses.
Sex education
The British government said it wants the UK to be the safest place in the world to be online and these new laws will help to achieve this.
Ministers have cited research by the NSPCC which found children were as likely to stumble across pornography online as they were to search for it.
The UK government has said it hopes the age-restriction scheme will help, in particular, to prevent instances where children have seen inappropriate content in a pop-up window or through a link they were sent.
However critics have accused the government of taking a shortsighted approach to the issue.
West said research about children watching porn is often “conflicted”, but there is one conclusion that is always consistent – better sex education is vital.
“Everywhere where there is decent sex education young people watch less porn and they feel less conflicted about it. They also have healthier relationships and have more of a switched-on opinion of consent.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
A shocking incident. Can you imagine if you purposefully rammed a cop car in america, these feral guerriers would be a statistic.
We’re too soft, they will prob get off lightly.
@Jferr2021: have they even been arrested. Looks like they got away and are no doubt loving the publicity.
@Jferr2021: it wasn’t exactly rammed off the road it was 2 very small bumps now the 2 gardai have time off with pay I’m sorry but when someone decides to become a garda they know that they are signing up to stop crime so they didn’t even stop it they drove off and the behaviour was left for community to deal with now the best thing is to get the kids involved in positive activity and most will stay out of trouble unfortunately a small amount will stay involved in negative behaviour but there’s a lot can be saved from that lifestyle
@Ger Byrne: I think your silly attitude is in the vast minority here and rightly so. Clueless
@Ger Byrne: What a naive comment, a positive activity doesn’t solve the issues in any of Dublin’s deprived suburbs, if you god honestly think this you’ve probably never even driven through one of these suburbs let alone lived there. If from a young age your surrounded by drugs, crime, and criminals having more power in your area than the law, your going to be thinking about survival and how to be untouchable, not playing sports or hanging out at a youth centre playing board games. And as for the Garda when our Garda force are so deprived of resources and the justice system can’t back up their hard work to fight crime, what are they realistically going to do???
@Jferr2021: USA is not a nice place…
@Gerry Dornan: no one is saying it is but if these thugs know guards are not adequately resourced, they have no more than a baton at their disposal and the justice system is leniant it will encourage more thuggish behaviour.
Understand that there are underlying social issues here etc, however, we cannot allow our gardai or citizens be subject to harm or even death. The thugs understand right from wrong and should not be spared any punishment whatsoever.
Arrest them for attempted murder, show zero leniency.
@Seán Ó Briain: exactly nothing less than attempt murder and also into the special criminal court no jury ….send out a strong message……
@Seán Ó Briain: Judge nolan will say different. Get use to that fact.
@Sean O Callaghan: Respect for your childish comment again Sean.
@Sean O Callaghan: the big Liverpool man at it again I see lol
@Aidy McBride:Stop picking on me Aidy. Shame on you.
@Seán Ó Briain: Most of them are under 18, so not going to happen.
@Paul Gorry: lol
@Paul Gorry: Paul does this go on in Liverpool, asking for a friend.
You won’t see that in Germany. Our cops have backup. And guns. And authority. Scary to see the State not in control!
After seeing the videos, can anyone explain exactly why they need to be off work..I get it, it was a potentially traumatic experience… But it was more of a bumper get together than actually being rammed!!! I don’t get it.. What injuries were sustained?
@Ryan: I really hope they are ok but I agree with Ryan, this was no HUGE head-on collision, Again, I do not condone what happened, it just seems odd that you could get really hurt out of that!
@Antoin O’hEidhin: its mentally traumatizing- if you were in your place of work and your life was
put in danger suddenly .. with no one to help or support you??these gardai were working !
@Ryan: it was not a potentially traumatising — it was traumatising without a doubt. Have some respect for the gardai who are there to help citizens and protect as much as they can. Don’t begrudge having to take sick leave for gods sake !
@Ryan: well guess what why don’t you head down to the place we’re it happened let these guys bumper you twice been In many of a fender bender and no matter how slight it can be a shock to the system
@Dublin sunrise: You compleyely missed the point of the post, and what do you mean sock leave? It clearly states “due to their injuries” but does no state what injuries…. A little bit of perspective here…. If we have Guarda taking time off “due to injuries” for something like this, then we ate all truely screwed… My god..
@Ryan: and tbh if it was the other way around these guards were as you say bumping these cars you probably be screaming for their heads for traumatizing these poor unfortunate souls that have nothing else to do but create mayhem
@Ryan: also as they were two female officers look at the photo if that was your sister or mother that was in the time and place same thing done to them do you not think they would be traumatized by that
@Deirdre Meredith: F#€K! Two female guards in that situation had no chance.
@Antoin O’hEidhin: have you ever been rammed in your car?
@Ryan: the report said injuries, not trauma. I don’t see how they got injuries. Will there be a whiplash claim going in?
@Ryan: what medical qualifications do you have? They have seen a GP who told/advised them to refrain from work … do you want their full private medical history publicised or just the private records for this incident …
@Peter McGlynn: so many doctors comment on the journal.
@Riaf: yes, that is why I have commented!
Hopefully the will fully recover and get 100% support from the senior management…but unfortunately they will probably receive letters about their sick from someone nameless wonder in garda hq ….and then probably get paperwork under the garda code for turning on blue lights and sirens with being qualified….and this will probably happen in a few months when it has gone quiet in the media
@Dave Ryan: Gas man,true though
When I saw the video 1st I thought it was from a tv show I couldn’t believe they would have the b**ls to ram an official Garda car . Shocking acts of violence.. bring back the monkey squad
We are suffering from brain drain and mass emigration at the moment. Anyone who works for the government needs a massive pay increase, yesterday. Anyone with any sense is leaving the civil service and the Gardai. The pay has not kept up with inflation over the years and is certainly not keeping up with massive inflation we’re seeing now, coupled with the cost of living crisis, energy crisis, the war, Brexit and Covid. The only way to retain staff is to improve conditions, improve morale and most importantly improve pay. But they seem to be doing the opposite.
@Tomo: are you having a laugh ??? According to CSO figures, the average weekly wage in the Public Service is €750 and the average weekly wage in the Private Sector is €360 pw, a ridiculous situation given that the Public Service is a cost to the economy and generates nothing to that economy, whilst it is the Private Sector who generate the entire economy, then add to that the ridiculous pensions into the mix, the whole thing is unsustainable.
Absolute sc#m.
Perfect punishment
For a lesser sentence
Send them to an uninhabitable island say Innis shark island no mobile phone no data no land line no tv no shelter no food nothing just fend for yourself 24 months detention.
Serious sentence
Export them to Ukraine to fight on the front line or use them as human land mine detection specialists
If they survive they’ll know the true value of respect if they don’t survive ah well.
@: Under 18s to be accompanied by both parents
Should have called in the Army and Nuked all them absolute wasters
These guys will hit a wall sometime and it’ll be poetic justice when they go up in a ball of flames
@Aidy McBride: and you will have the masses crying they were such good kids never done any wrong
@Deirdre Meredith: it happened in Derry and the joyriders basically had a tribute to the guy at the funeral that involves stealing more cars and hand braking them around roundabouts. The boy in question lost control of his stolen motor and hit a tree, his mates legged it and he died in the car after it caught fire.
If the Garda had a decent vehicle for dealing with these incidents. Give them some armoured land Rovers. Let the boys ram that and see if the still have the balls for attacking the Garda after a head to head with 6 ton of armour plating. Equip the Garda with non lethal crowd control equipment that has been proven to work in other countries like pepper paint balls.
A big compo claim coming true for what’a don’t know
Would have serious concerns about the anti social behaviour (are we really surprised!!). The event is symbolic a microcosm of a subgroup in our society that are not been managed. Society cannot function without rules. Rules will not be followed without consequences. Rules and Consequences will not be accepted without respect for the individuals applying the rules.
I would question the Risk Assessment around driving into this situation ,however in saying that if they drove away they would have been accused of something else ! (Brave but somewhat irresponsible). Its a good question are the joy riders still on the streets? If not, the action taken by Gardai should be all over social media as a way of showing society that this behaviour is not going to be tolerated.
That’s no way you’d walk away from that, their backs will certainly be damaged.
@Caroline Otoole: Ah stop will ya
@Caroline Otoole: You sound like a professional claimer, Caroline… Lol.
Will you stop.
All original reports were there was no injuries… Hope they’re OK.. But in fairness I’ve had bigger impacts playing ball…
Sentencing here has been a joke for sometime now, do five years for murder and walking the streets again. Can’t say who is in control of this, surely judges have to answer to the people?? Get tough, 2 strikes your in and without your WiFi, TV, cuddle if feeling down. Get tough but also try and give those who are interested some sort of leg up.
I’m not seeing why the cops are off work, wasn’t exactly ramming. You’d get a harder hit in bumping cars at the fairground
@Sean Mc Cabe: How do you know what the impact was .
@Sean Mc Cabe: your post shows that you’re part of the problem along with others throwing up infantile comments.
@Sean Mc Cabe: Asking for a friend, what is your medical training.???
@Sean Mc Cabe: it’s unbelievable alright
The Dublin Gardai need to invest in a few Bayraktars.
Enough is enough everyone. Two Garadi were attacked responding to reports of criminal activities in an area. Let’s not forget these Garadi are someone’s brothers, sons, partnets and possibly someone’s father. They know leaving their homes in the morning there is always an element of danger to them doing their jobs , but to be deliberately be set up and attacked is not and should be tolerated. I am not a Garda , have no one associated to the Gardai , but if I’m in trouble criminality wise they are the first I call and I’d say its the same for the people in Cherry Orchard. So let’s mute our comments about , ” it was only a little bump , bigger dents in the dodgems, how could they be hurt ” , we weren’t there , we don’t know .
@Michael Costello: we don’t need to be there, there’s plenty of videos around showing the little tap on the front bumper they got.
@Johnny Honest: anyone who has been in an accident are in shock. They were driven into, people were cheering, shouting ram them. Your in that Garda car and you see, feel and hear this its not until later, and it may well be much later, when you get out of the situation you feel the effects of the incident. Like you I was not there, I was not in the squad car, I did not feel the bumps, I did not hear the crowd baying for blood. TG
Let’s be very honest here, it was hardly a head on collision. They got a tap on the front bumper ffs. Off due to injuries is complete bol**x. More than likely will have a claim in now too.
I’m not saying what happened was right. But seriously.
Their Doctors certified that the two Gardai go on sick leave ,are people suggesting that the Doctors are lying.
i thank god i don’t live there, such a bunch of mings.
These thugs and their parents should be brought to a court which will not be easy on them. The bystanders who applauded and urged the ramming should be done for incitement also.
In saying all that, the ramming was only a fender bender and not one that necessitates time off work.
Can you imagine what would happen those thugs in America.
@BadBob: whatever
I have a pain in my rear end continuously listening to this sort of crime. How about getting a job, ” Nobody will hire me he says” well then retrain. ” I never went to skule he says” well go now as you are doing nothing else. Then when young Broncho turns up in court he has 75 previous convictions and all the Time I and normal people like me are paying for this charade. Joke.
Wow your very CHEERFUL i bet.
Rehabilitation is the way forward put positive courses and buildings promote sport you won’t save them all but the majority will be and then they will be doing something positive instead of what went on and the gardai should be OK it’s what they train and sign up for they wanted the job and should be expecting to have to deal with crime
Did DREW Harris tell us that these two Garda where not injured in this incident or I miss understood. If these Garda are injured wish then a speedy recovery and lock these rogues up
have your say