374. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the key measures taken to enhance online safety since January 2025; his priorities for same for the rest of 2026; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53452/26]

Coimisiún na Meán, established in March 2023 under the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act, is at the heart of Ireland's online safety framework. The framework equips An Coimisiún with legal and regulatory tools to address the availability of illegal content, inadequate protections for children on social media and the harmful impacts of recommender systems.

2025 saw the full application of Coimisiún na Meán’s Online Safety Code. This was the latest addition to the online safety framework, which comprises the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022, the EU Digital Services Act, which came into force in 2024, and the Terrorist Content Online Regulation. That Code obliges designated video-sharing platforms to take measures to limit the spread of harmful content.

In its enforcement role, Coimisiún na Meán supports the European Commission, which is the lead regulator under the Digital Services Act, and initiates its own investigations. Most recently, in May of this year, it commenced 2 investigations in relation to potential 'dark patterns', or manipulative and deceptive interface designs, which may prevent people from exercising their right to choose a recommender system feed that is not based on profiling.

Coimisiún na Meán has an educational role too. For example, last year it ran a public information campaign about children’s rights online in cinemas across Ireland and collaborated with Webwise (a member of Ireland’s Safer Internet Centre) of the development of ‘Switched On’ an educational programme about digital citizenship and online safety for children in primary schools. This programme was launched earlier this year. Coimisiún na Meán has also continued to expand its media literacy resources and programmes, with a view to equipping young people with the critical skills to recognise and resist harmful content and narratives they encounter online. It has developed a suite of resources for students, parents and educators about children’s rights online, including FAQs, videos and lessons plans.

In April last year I published the National Counter Disinformation Strategy, which highlights the importance of strengthening people’s resilience to disinformation, particularly online and includes 36 actions to address this complex issues. I also secured €1.1 million in Budget 2026 to advance some of those actions, in the areas of research, media literacy and fact-checking.

In February 2026, the Government published the National Digital and AI Strategy “Digital Ireland: Connecting our People, Securing our Future” which includes online safety, with a focus on children and young people, as a key theme and confirms that it is a whole of Government priority.

One of the commitments in that Strategy that is assigned to my Department is to support robust age verification across the EU and through the Government's Digital Wallet, to implement an age verification tool, protecting users’ rights including privacy, and enhancing online safety. The Online Safety Code obliges designated online video-sharing platforms take measures to ensure that minors, under the age of 18, do not have access to adult-only material such as pornography and gratuitous violence. The age verification tool is intended to support compliance with that obligation. My Department is working with the Office of the Government’s Chief Information Officer to deliver that tool.

Coimisiún na Meán is also making progress on other commitments in that Strategy in the area of Artificial Intelligence, preparing an information and awareness campaign and reviewing the existing taxonomies of online harms.

Strengthening online safety is a priority for Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU.

In delivering on this priority, I want to listen to children and young people’s views on their experiences online and what they think can make a safer online world. Last month, my Department convened a Youth Forum on Online Safety, bringing together a diverse group of approximately 100 children and young people from across Ireland to discuss, with trained facilitators, key aspects of online safety and relevant topical issues.

The outcomes and findings from the Youth Forum will also feed directly into a wider programme for a high-level Presidency Conference on Online Safety, to be held in Dublin in September. This event will bring together public representatives, policymakers, academics, non-governmental organisations, and children and young people themselves.

Developments at EU level are also expected during our term as Presidency. The European Commission is preparing proposals to strengthen online safety for children and young people, including a revision of the Audiovisual and Media Services Directive, a new Digital Fairness Act and measures following the recently published report of the Special Panel on child safety online.

These are expected to be published after the summer. We will prioritise these negotiations during our Presidency.