Seanad Éireann calls for under-18s to be protected from porn epidemic

The Irish Parliament’s upper house has called for children to be better protected from the dangers of online pornography.

During the Seanad Éireann’s second reading of Senator Rónán Mullen’s Protection of Children (Online Age Verification) Bill, there was wide support for preventing under-18s from accessing pornography as senators highlighted its association with violence against and degradation of women.

Under the proposals, providers who allow pornographic material to be accessed without robust age-verification could be fined up to €500,000 and sentenced to ten years in prison. Although Private Members’ Bills rarely become law, they can be used to highlight gaps in legislation.

Society

Senator Mullen told his colleagues: “We must protect children and make our society safe for women to walk the streets and go about their daily lives realising that the men around them see them not as objects but in a respectful, empathic way as equal partners in humanity.”

Senator Sharon Keogan, who co-signed the Bill, highlighted that there are already children in Ireland who are “highly sexualised and need around-the-clock care and attention due to the trauma they lived through or the danger they present to others”.

Catherine Martin TD, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, raised issues with the proposals but emphasised that it is a “key” Government priority to protect children from “age-inappropriate content like pornography”.

The Bill is now awaiting Committee Stage.

Age-verification

Earlier this year, the European Union ordered three of the world’s biggest pornography sites to prevent children from accessing their websites.

Pornhub, XVideos and Stripchat have been designated Very Large Online Platforms under the EU’s Digital Services Act and must moderate their content more diligently, introduce “age verification tools” and demonstrate greater transparency.

Failure to comply with the directive risks a fine of up to six per cent of their global turnover.