Online Safety: Motion
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-26
============================================================

Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel

I welcome the Minister of State, and I welcome the debate. Like Senator Mullen, I do not think this motion goes far enough. I am seconding the amendments. I thank Senator Mullen for bringing forward such important clarifications and asks when it comes to the criminal and civil responsibility of companies. Many of the dangers surrounding social media and online access relate to pornography. These large companies distribute pornographic material, often including child sexual abuse material that is readily accessible at the touch of a button. We have companies hosting videos that either contain sexual violence or endorse it in some capacity. These companies, like Aylo Billing, which owns PornHub, are based in Dublin. In 2020, they took in €260 million in revenue. They are bringing in hundreds of millions in revenue every year but take no responsibility for the harmful content they are profiting from. The Exchequer is also benefiting from these companies. We talk about Grok and age verification, but I believe we are allowing large companies to get away scot free. Should the responsibility be left to the young consumer or to the multinational corporations producing this material? These amendments provide us with the platform needed to hold corporations responsible. They will provide for criminal and civil liabilities if these corporations do not uphold safety standards. Is the Government prepared to introduce legislation that will hold companies responsible for ensuring children are not exposed to pornographic or sexual abuse material? It seems that the reason there is not a harsher clampdown on major corporations is that even though there may be ethical objections to how they are operating, the Government considers the revenue from corporation tax too valuable to lose. This is at a grave cost to the protection of our children. Legislation that targets corporations would send a message that Ireland has strict enforcement when it comes to the protection of our young people.

---

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