Online Safety
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-27
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Charlie McConalogue (FF), Donegal

I again thank the Senator for raising these important issues. I assure him that online safety is a priority for the Government. Legislation and regulation are a vital part of minimising the availability of harmful and illegal content, especially for children. However, we need to ensure that those laws are effective, capable of being supervised and enforced in practice, and do not go beyond what is proportionate.
The Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, Deputy O’ Donovan, has made it a priority theme for the upcoming EU Presidency to work with our EU partners to ensure that our regulation remains robust and up to date and that children are safe in the online world. This is something that is not specific to this country. If we can work with other member states, we should do so because online safety is an issue that crosses boundaries. The Senator has outlined the impact that social media can have and highlighted the exceptional presentation given by the principal of St. Macartan's College. That speaks to how important online safety is kept to the forefront of our minds. Online safety is a big issue of this generation. It is important that online safety is discussed and teased out in detail, to which the Senator has contributed today. Departmental officials, the Minister and I will work to do everything that we can to address the harmful impacts of social media on young people, in particular.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-27