WITH the online safety of children making its way back into the public consciousness and the success of hit TV show ‘Adolescence’ on Netflix, it should come as no surprise that a new report is calling for greater online protections.
The ‘Online Safety Monitor’ was published by the Children’s Rights Alliance today and it issues stark warnings that failing to put adequate protections in place could give predators more of an opportunity to interact with our kids.
Children in Ireland remain especially vulnerable, with the report analysing the efficacy of internet protections already in place. Thankfully, the report also includes recommendations for better care as well as a detailed plan for monitoring the situation as the online space continues to evolve.
The ‘Online Safety Monitor’ has called on the Government to implement a user-friendly individual complaints mechanism, which would children to make complaints or for complaints to be made on their behalf.
The report also says that there is room to bolster the oversight of platform compliance in line with the EU’s set of safety rules – or ‘Digital Services Act’ – with specific reference to areas like safety-by-design, transparency, privacy and algorithms.
It says the Government has the opportunity to lead when it comes to strengthening EU laws aimed at tackling the production, hosting, access and use of child sexual abuse material, recommending a much more robust approach to grooming, encryption, detection and secure storage of such material.
Ireland has already recently introduced the ‘Online Safety and Media Regulation Act’, a dedicated Online Safety Commissioner and the ‘Online Safety Code’, which introduces the possibility of punitive measures being taken against platforms who fail to adequately oversee what is being posted.
Online Safety Coordinator with the CRA, Noeline Blackwell, has said of the current measures:”The Online Safety Codes offer the first real chance to ensure there are significant consequences for platforms doing too little to safeguard children, but in their current form, they give too much scope to platforms to determine their own safety standards.
“The recommended algorithms these companies designed that feed children harmful content are not included. On top of that, children and young people are still waiting for an accessible individual complaints mechanism that they can turn to when they do experience harms online.”
The timing of the report from the CRA coincides with the first Online Safety Monitor being launched at an online safety conference hosted by the by the organisation. Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan will be in attendance, along with David D’Arcy, Digital Services Act Officer for Ireland at the European Commission.