I welcome and support the Bill and I thank the People Before Profit Deputies for bringing it forward. It is vital legislation to protect children and to give adults the choice of opting in or opting out. All responsible bodies are calling for legislation like this, including the Joint Committee on Artificial Intelligence, Irish Council for Civil Liberties, the National Women's Council of Ireland and many more. The Bill does three main things. It bans video-sharing platforms from using recommender algorithms where they know the user is under 18 years of age or where they do not know the user's age, which is important. Second, for users over 18, it requires recommender algorithms not to use personal data unless the user has selected that option. Third, it requires video-sharing platforms to facilitate users in choosing recommender algorithm parameters. The Bill applies to all video-sharing platforms defined under existing law and includes all the main social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and LinkedIn. Crucially, it provides for Coimisiún na Meán to incorporate the provisions in this Bill into the online safety code. The Bill is necessary because social media companies and the State have failed to act to protect children. Numerous studies show that social media recommender algorithms are bombarding children with harmful material, including material that promotes self-harm, anorexia, suicide and toxic content that promotes misogyny, racism and transphobia. Up to now social media has been largely unregulated, with no regulation that threatens their profits. They have been completely secretive in relation to the parameters of their algorithms which they refuse to disclose either publicly or to governments. They prioritise trade secrets and commercial confidentiality over children's mental health. This is all about profit for social media companies. They use recommender algorithms because they believe that extreme and harmful content keeps people watching longer, allowing more time to show people advertising and harvest their personal data for marketing purposes. For instance, in 2023 Meta Ireland made €1.56 billion in post-tax profits in a very small market. The Bill sets out the detail of the legislation and provides that it will come into operation 90 days after promulgation by the President. It is deeply disappointing to say the least that the Government is opposing this Bill. I urge the Minister and the Government, even at this late stage, to reconsider that and to withdraw the amendment.

Sentiment score: 0.10