Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 23 April 2024

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth

Ireland's International Obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Discussion

Sinead Murray:

Regarding what was said about an age restriction on social media, most social media require an age of 13 and over but there is nothing to confirm you are 13. On one platform for videos, you have to show ID to prove you are over a certain age. Why can it not be like that for everything? I do not know the required ages for all social media but it is 13 and over for Instagram. However, how can an eight-year-old download it without being asked whether he or she is actually 13? Showing ID to prove you are a certain age or some means of proving your age should be required to access social media, just so we will know that really young kids will not see fake content or material that is not completely true that can completely damage their mental health. An ID system to prove you are a certain age would benefit.