Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have come to the Chamber pay tribute to Senator Chambers for bringing forward this Bill. The progressive Bills she has been involved with follow on from real-life issues that impact people, especially younger people. She successfully brought through the stalking Bill and has moved onto this Bill on the practice of catfishing. She spoke about the impact of this practice and the need to recognise it from a criminal point of view. That is very important. I was on the media committee when the online media Bill was being debated and we dealt with several young people who had been victims of different online crimes. It is a sphere and a world that is causing exceptional distress to a great many people. As Senator Chambers said, it leaves people emotionally devastated. Following on from that, victims find it very hard to trust again. This can affect their personal and professional relationships, leading to depression and anxiety.

That is all before we deal with the financial losses that can be involved. The studies that have been carried out have shown these to be very significant. Studies carried out in the US have shown that catfishing scams have among the highest reported losses associated with Internet crimes as a whole. A total of 19,000 Americans reported losing almost $740 million to romance scammers in 2022. Across the water, in the United Kingdom, the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau received more than 8,000 reports of romance fraud in the same financial year, resulting in total losses of more than £92 million. The figures involved in this are very significant. Apart from anything else, including the devastating impact on people's emotional well-being, the financial element of this is highly significant, particularly for teenagers and Gen Z. Research by Snapchat involving more than 6,000 Gen Z teenagers and young people in the UK, France, Germany, Australia and the US who use that platform found that almost two thirds of these users had at least been targeted by catfishers or hackers with a view to obtaining private images. Last week, we had a discussion on media literacy, dealing with our State's defence mechanisms against these things and trying to encourage people, particularly young people, to improve their media literacy. We are already doing a lot of positive promotional work.We need to see that underlined. Coimisiún na Meán has a huge body of work to do in that respect.

We can do a great deal in terms of positive media literacy. In regard to responses in other jurisdictions, in the UK catfishing is not classified as a criminal offence. However, if the person using a fake profile engages in illegal activities such as financial gain, he or she can be punished by law. In China, God forgive me for using a country such as China as an example, under its cybersecurity law there is a provision that implicates people who allow their websites or communication platforms to be used for fraud and other illegal activities. When I read about that it got me thinking that during the online media Bill that we discussed in this House with the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, Senator Malcolm Byrne and I both sought to make an amendment to actually make the directors of platforms in the country, rather than just the entity, personally liable if harm had been caused. We did not get that through at that time. Amazingly, it has become a buzz item for many of our leaders. Something that was ruled out of hand a couple of years ago is now being looked at again. In regard to this, I wanted to come into the Chamber to support my colleague, Senator Chambers. This is an important body of work that is going to resonate. As seen from many of the media reports today, it has resonated among many young people. In that respect it is incumbent on us to give it due regard and debate. I hope the Minister of State will do so.