Online Safety: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-26 ============================================================ Pauline Tully (SF), Cultural and Educational Panel I welcome the motion for the most part. There is nothing I can disagree with bar that Ireland has a robust online safety framework. We have an online safety framework but I am afraid it is not robust enough and it does not keep up with ever-changing technology, which is a concern. We all know that access to the Internet and the use of AI has many benefits and positives. It can be beneficial for businesses and individuals, and we can see how public services and innovation can be improved. We have heard about enhanced health care, diagnosis, drug discoveries, improved productivity and creativity and dealing with repetitive tasks. There are many positives but it is not a force for good. The concept and the technology can be used in whatever way the user intends. It needs to be regulated and this is important. There are many malicious users who misuse and manipulate the tools they find online. There are many dangers with AI. We can see a possible loss of jobs in certain areas, privacy risks, copyright infringements and the spread of misinformation, which is a big issue. We have all suffered abuse online. If many people were to use their own names, they would not put their comments online because if we met them on the street they would not say it to our face. We wonder how many of the accounts are real. We hear about bots. If we had properly verified accounts for every user, it would cut out an awful lot of the misinformation and abuse online. Recently there has been a lot of talk about the generation of illegal material through AI tools such as X's Grok and other platforms with similar tools. They are being used to generate images that are child sexual abuse material and deepfake naked images of people online. We ask ourselves why these features exist in the first place, especially in relation to children. It is just horrific. A lot more needs to be done about the companies because they have got away with decades of not being regulated. There needs to be strict regulation and strict procedures for dealing with this information. We have to recognise that non-consensual AI nude deepfakes are a form of digital domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and this is what they need to be called out as. There is a loophole in existing Irish law which criminalises the distribution of non-consensual intimate images, including deepfakes, but not their creation. Coco's Law was introduced in 2020 and we are all familiar with it. It criminalises the non-consensual recording or distribution of intimate images, but there is a lack of certainty over whether the Act covers the generation or creation of intimate images. It does not clearly state that the generation of a deepfake sexual image of an adult is illegal. My colleagues Deputies Devine and Carthy introduced a Bill to the Dáil recently to amend Coco's Law. They want to make three straightforward changes: to explicitly criminalise the non-consensual creation or generation of intimate images and videos through the use of AI, to extend the statute of limitations from two to five years for some summary offences and to increase the maximum penalties upon conviction. I welcome the fact that was not opposed by the Government. I ask that it go to Committee Stage as quickly as possible and that it proceed to amend the Act and be written into law. Ireland's AI advisory council has recommended the creation of a specific offence of creation or generation of AI deepfakes. The ban on under-16s using social media that was introduced in Australia is a blunt tool. It might seem easy to do that but social media does not extend to gaming, educational tech or wider digital ecosystems. There are ways in which children can be abused online or subjected to unsavoury content other than on social media. Before introducing a ban, we should consider everything. We need to talk to young people and organisations representing them, to parents and to the tech companies. The tech companies have operated for decades without meaningful child safety regulation. We have to do something to enforce safety by design. We know children's overuse of online platforms is dangerous, as is their being subjected to unsavoury content. However, sometimes the use of online platforms is beneficial. During Covid, I was very thankful that my children could engage with their friends through playing games online. They could not see them because they were not allowed to mix or go to school. It was a way for them to stay in contact with people so it was beneficial at that time. We also need to invest in physical youth spaces for young people to meet others who may not be part of a sports, drama or other organisation. They can go somewhere safe and talk to an adult who is not a parent, with whom they might feel more comfortable discussing unsavoury content or illicit images they have seen online. They can discuss what is real and not real in a safe space. I would advocate for much more investment in physical youth spaces to address these issues. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-26/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:42+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-26