In the digital age we need to keep up with technology, keep a close eye on it and ensure children are safe. As we all know, algorithms are designed by the big tech giants to be addictive - the equivalent of digital cocaine. They know, insidiously, that they are destroying the physical and mental well-being of an entire generation of young people today for one sole purpose, namely, to broaden their customer base. Our online safety recommender Bill proposed amendments to the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act and how video sharing platforms use the recommender algorithms. Algorithms are designed to keep people endlessly scrolling, as we all know, which has a huge impact on young people's mental health. They are designed to amplify extreme content, promote unrealistic body image and distort reality. We have to have a number of elements for safe and responsible participation, which would include appropriate and effective regulation of digital content. We have seen the damage Grok can cause and how children are exposed to such dangers and harmful behaviours. This is why we strongly need to stand up to big tech companies. These companies are based just a stone's throw from this building. It would be criminally irresponsible for us not to take on the big tech giants we seem to have prostituted this country to, in many ways. We need to hold them to account for what appears on their platforms. They are making billions of euro from this country and exploiting the children of this country and of the world. We need to rein in the big tech companies because it has been the wild west until now. An outright ban on social media may be well intentioned; however, it has not proven to be very effective in France or Australia. For this reason, we are proposing amendments that will work and ensure we have control over the big tech giants based just a stone's throw from this building. We can do that and we know it will or should work. The need to have proper safeguards is urgent. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children must be protected from harm, not exploited and have access to proper, accurate and truthful information. We welcome the intention behind this Bill and what it tries to do in terms of restrictions and protecting children from harm. We will bring forward amendments to improve the Bill. We support it progressing to the next Stage. I cannot understand how any Government that claims to be in favour of the rights of children could oppose regulating these big tech giants, which are basically the modern day vampires of the world.

Sentiment score: 0.16