I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I thank the Sinn Féin Deputies for bringing it forward. I welcome the Bill. It is important legislation, although it is short, that is vital for the protection of the public, both adults and children, to stop the creation and distribution of intimate images without consent. Unfortunately, there are gaps in the principal Act of 2020. This legislation deals with that by creating a stand-alone offence of the creation of non-consensual intimate images. This is an area where there must be no room for confusion, loopholes or grey areas. It is an area that must be dealt with and legislated for urgently. What we are dealing with here is, of course, a crime and a violation of individuals on the basis of image-based sexual abuse and child sexual abuse material. As I said, this is important legislation. It clarifies the original Act, creates the stand-alone offence and increases the time limit within which a case can be taken. That is very important because on very many occasions there can be long delays in information coming forward, so the extension of that time is vitally important. The increase in penalties is also very significant and welcome. This is very important legislation that I urge the Government to accept. I know it is not opposing the Bill but what we need is urgent action to implement the proposals in it. I will also refer to the whole question of access by minors aged under 16 to social media. As we know, Australia was the world's first country to ban social media access for under-16s. That ban came into force in December 2025. Other countries, such as Spain, France, Denmark, Greece and Portugal, either have or are introducing similar bans of their own. In fact, the Spanish Prime Minister said, and I agree with him, that children must be protected from what he calls "the digital Wild West". Minors in Ireland have unsupervised access to a space they were never meant to navigate and are exposed to violence, manipulation, abuse, addiction, pornography and much more. Early access to social media is linked to risks, including cyberbullying, mental health issues, depression, anxiety and exposure to harmful content. The Government must introduce legislation in this area to include State-enforced regulation to prevent access by under-16s to social media and require platforms to introduce technology-verified identity systems to prevent that access. Self-reported age is simply not good enough any more. Most platforms formally require people to be over the age of 13 but there is effectively no enforcement of that. The platforms will strenuously object to these proposals but they are of vital importance. The owners of these tech companies are part of an elite group of billionaires. Nine of the ten top social media companies in the world are owned by six billionaires and eight of the top ten AI companies are billionaire-run. These billionaires use their extreme concentration of wealth to shape laws to influence the media, technology, taxation and public policy in their favour. These companies must be faced down for the protection of children. We must not be laggards in this area, waiting and waiting for the EU to act. As I said, other countries in the EU, such as Spain, France, Denmark, Greece and Portugal, have gone on their own. We must do the same and we must do it quickly.

Sentiment score: 0.09