An Oireachtas Committee that examined the regulation of online platforms and online safety has not supported a ban on access for under 16s to social media platforms.
The members of the Arts, Media and Communications Committee instead made other recommendations, including that platforms turn off recommender algorithms aimed at children, a ban be introduced on "infinite scrolling", autoplay videos and prompts that keep pulling users back.
The report published by the committee this morning, is based on hearings it conducted with various groups including some social media firms.
Committee chairman Alan Kelly said that based on all of the evidence, the committee specifically did not recommend an access ban for under 16s as has been tried in Australia.
Minister for Communications Patrick O'Donovan has repeatedly said he will introduce a ban on under 16s getting on social media and is working on that plan at the moment.
The minister previously told the Dáil it was his firm belief that there should be an overall restriction at EU level, and said he had been engaging with his EU counterparts on this.
"If a common approach at EU level is not achieved, I will seek Government approval to take action at a national level," the minister said.
Tánaiste Simon Harris has also supported the call for an access ban for under 16s.
Ban would be evaded 'fairly quickly'
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Kelly said an access ban would be ineffectual because it can be evaded "fairly quickly".
However, the Labour TD called on the Government to legislate to ensure social media companies change their algorithms and end "infinite scroll" features because self-regulation "simply won’t work".
Mr Kelly said the committee met "virtually everyone you should meet on this issue".
Watch: Which countries have or are considering social media bans for under 16s?
"Simply put, nobody, including in many submissions, nobody actually recommended an under-16 ban being effective, practical, or actually technologically probably possible.
"Some countries have gone down that road; It's open as regards how effective that's going to be.
"But simply put, as one contributor said, 'when they pick up your phone and you turn on a VPN and then you're going around an under-16 ban straight away'," Mr Kelly said.
He added that various organisations that work with children and vulnerable, including CyberSafeKids, do not believe a ban on under 16s using social media would work.
"We had to reflect that in our report.
"Of course, there are some people who would believe it, but technologically you can get around this very quickly, and we're seeing that in Australia already," Mr Kelly said.
He called for Ireland to take the lead in legislating against the recommender systems used by social media companies.
"Their bottom line is making money through marketing, through selling products, through building up data and profiling of people so they can sell more products," he said.
He added: "It's legislatively and regulatory wise. They have to be made to make these changes.
"The intellectual property of these companies is their algorithms.
"We believe that from a legislative point of view, and we would love to see this across Europe, it'd be better if this was done across Europe.
"But if not, at a national level, we need to ensure that all of this continuous scrolling, all of this recommender system, all of this profiling, all of that has to change and change dramatically."
'Difficult to see how this could be pushed through' - Digital Rights Ireland
The Chairperson of Digital Rights Ireland has said it is difficult to see how a social media ban for under 16s would proceed if there is not a wider consensus within Government.
TJ McIntyre, who is also an assistant professor in law in the Sutherland School of Law in UCD said he thinks it is "really interesting that the committee has taken this quite nuanced view".
He said he hopes that the committee's report "does enable us to think about things that we could implement in a technically feasible way" such as regulating recommender algorithms.
He said these algorithms have been used quite a bit in the promotion of far-right views and extreme manosphere content, like self-described misogynist Andrew Tate.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News At One, Mr McIntyre said: "There is scope there to address those without needing to think about very intrusive regulation."
He said 'infinite scrolling' is a concern as it causes addictive behaviour among children.
"The suggestion, essentially, is that for children, we should be looking at tailoring the algorithms such that they don’t have that same quality," Mr McIntyre said.
He said it was very difficult to see what is going on inside Government regarding the proposed ban, referencing Minister O'Donovan repeatedly saying he will introduce the ban.
"It is hard to see that there is any degree of consensus, even within Government, as to how this should proceed," he said.
Mr McIntyre added that the committee, who made the recommendations included many members of Government.
He said proceeding with a ban or regulations would involve hugely invasive regulation of platforms and have a massive impact on individuals and significant impact on the internet industry as a whole.
"It is very hard to see how this could be pushed through if you don’t have a wider consensus in Government at least."
