Noeline Blackwell

The government is expected to agree today to introduce legislation banning social media for under-16s, following in the footsteps of Australia, which introduced such a ban in December.

However, Noeline Blackwell, online safety co-ordinator with the Children’s Rights Alliance, warned today that a ban “punishes children for the fixable faults created by the tech giants by denying them the social engagement that is some of the best parts of social media”.

“Even worse, it may drive them to socialise in secretive ways which predators use to groom children for sexual and financial abuse,” she said.

“Children who find themselves in these situations may be even less likely to report that they are scared or being extorted because they are doing something illegal or banned.”

While a ban “may be well-meaning”, Ms Blackwell warned that the “Australian experiment” did not ban children from the internet as a whole, only from having their own social media accounts.

“This does not stop them accessing social media content on their browsers, nor going onto other platforms not subject to the ban which, as less regulated, may have even less protections than those on the banned platforms,” she said.

She added: “Above all, it doesn’t address the problem. The problem is not children, or the fact that they’re socialising online. The problem is that the products aren’t safe enough.”

The Children’s Rights Alliance recently made a submission to the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport on how children’s online safety could be advanced by Ireland during its EU presidency.

The charity, which unites over 165 member organisations, has proposed that the government “convene a wide, reasoned debate on how we approach guardrails for younger children using social media and other digital devices”.

It has also called on the government to “lead strongly on building crucial new EU wide legislation to require platforms to better regulate harmful material and to criminalise the horrific spread of child sexual abuse material online”.

Ms Blackwell said: “We acknowledge that within the EU, the Irish State and regulator is recognised as a strong leader for child protection. Now Ireland needs to step up and go further.

“It needs to build a world where the products of technology available to our children within the EU are safe. That’s possible. It’s necessary. It should be a priority.”