Simon Harris says social media ban for under-16s under ‘serious consideration’

Simon Harris said there is a “ticking time bomb” in relation to smartphone use for young people and has urged all political parties to work together to examine how such a ban would work in practice. Australia has recently become the first country to pass laws banning ­social media – including Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and X – for children under 16 years old.

The laws will place the onus on social media platforms to implement the restrictions, using age-verification technology, or they will face fines.

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These will not come into effect for ­another 12 months, to allow policy makers to explore more deeply how they will work in practice. Mr Harris said that while there are some practical issues in implementing those measures, “Australia deserves great ­credit”.

Communications minister Patrick O’Donovan has asked his officials to ­examine the Australian rules and to look at what other jurisdictions are doing to protect children from online harms.

“This is an area that requires a lot more action,” Mr Harris told the Dáil. “The era of self-regulation is over.”

He said Ireland would “not be brow beaten by anyone” in efforts to put “a regulatory structure in place that ­protects our democracies, protects our people and most importantly protects our children.

“We are not where we need to be in relation to this. We do need to look at what other countries are doing.”

There is a digital age of consent of 16 in Ireland, but Mr Harris said there are many “workarounds” to it and that means an “alarming” number of children are on social media well before that age.

According to the Irish charity CyberSafeKids, a ­majority – 84pc of 12-year-olds – have their own social media accounts or instant messaging, despite a minimum age of 13 being in place on most popular apps.

Almost all – 94pc of eight to 12-year-olds – own a smartphone device.

“This is a ticking time bomb. We do need to get serious in terms of empowering and supporting parents and ­tackling that FOMO [Fear of Missing Out] of ‘I must do it because somebody my age also has a smart phone or is also on ­social media’,” Mr Harris said.

“This is an area that we should act on. Very serious consideration should be given to the idea of having to be 16 before you are on social media.

“We should work constructively, across parties, perhaps with the new committee structures and the likes which exist in this house to really scrutinise this,” he said.

He was responding to questions from Independent TD Paul Gogarty, who called for a citizens’ convention on the issue. He said calls for regulation have not worked.

“We should seriously explore what they are doing in Australia, a liberal country, where the world’s strictest laws on social media have been enacted,” Mr Gogarty said.