Protection of Children (Online Age Verification) Bill 2026: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-08
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Sarah O'Reilly (AON), Agricultural Panel

I thank the Minister of State very much for coming in for this Bill. I support this legislation. I congratulate Senator Mullen on the work he has done on this Bill. It is very good legislation.
In a recent debate, I welcomed the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan's, proposal to make violent pornography illegal, but it does not go far enough. The Minister has mentioned content that shows knives or explicit acts of violence, but in a lot of this content, the violence is implied. A study found that one in eight videos shown to a first-time user of most mainstream porn sites shows sexual violence. If a child accesses porn for the first time, 12% of the content shown to them on the homepage is sexually violent. Of this 12%, the content ranged from sexual activity between family members, physical aggression, sexual assault, coercion and exploitation. As Senator Mullen laid out, under Article 34 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the State has a specific obligation to protect children from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. The State is failing in that obligation. Women's Aid found that 71% of the population see pornography as harmful to society and believe it negatively impacts sexual health development, gender equality and consent. We are all influenced by the environment around us. To expect children to watch pornography and not have it impact their actions or attitude is naive and misguided.
Some of the Senators will remember the debate on RTÉ's "The Frontline" where people where advocating for pornography to be taught as part of the relationships and sexuality education, RSE, curriculum in schools. That idea was swiftly blown out of the water when young women live on air started sharing their first experiences of sex. Some of them had found their partners aggressive, with others describing how they had been choked during sex. I know of a 15-year-old girl who was dropped by her mam to a coffee shop for a first date with a boy. Everyone was wondering if there would be a first kiss or a peck on the cheek. We were all as excited as she was. What we did not expect was that when he did go in for the kiss, he put his hands around her neck. We were all shocked. Where do you think he got that idea from?
Our young girls and boys are being completely failed. They are being brought up on content that teaches men that their role is to be aggressive and dominant while teaching women that they should be submissive and abused. Many men seem genuinely surprised when women say they do not want to be choked. What does that say about our society? What does it say about healthy sexual relationships? The reality is that it is not the norm, but it has become the norm unbeknown to us, and this must change. The Government proposal is to have age verification for every media platform, essentially bringing in digital ID. I cannot support digital ID because it is incompatible with our rights to personal freedom and privacy. It also leaves the responsibility with consumers instead of expecting these large corporations to take responsibility for their content. The Bill strikes a good balance without infringing on any personal freedoms. It puts the responsibility back on the porn companies to ensure no child is accessing pornographic content. Many of these companies have their headquarters in Ireland. These companies are not looking at the ethics of children watching pornography and will not have a moral epiphany and stop it.
Unless there is a legal obligation placed on them, there will not be any change. I encourage the Government to support this Bill because there is currently nothing within our legislation limiting the ability of children to access pornographic material.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-08/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:10+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-08