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Age Verification For Social Media Sites
2019 No Plans To Reintroduce Wolves To Would Not Work, Garda Cyber Boss Says

2nd, Ireland After 250 Years Says Minister young people
Children and
October alls by the Green attractive and that have much Culture and the Arts Josepha would find it too

get
to
easy
Party to reintroduce
tems,” he said.
has no plans to reintroduce
| Cwolves to Ireland more diverse natural sys- Madigan said her department around age veri-
fication for social
wolves to Ireland.
have been dismissed by the
“It is that level of ambition
EXAMINER Heritage Minister. and that level of putting reintroduction of a large pred- media sites, the
In a tweet, she said the
of
the
head
nature first is where we think
Green Party leader Eamon
Garda
cyber
this country needs to go, and
ator that had been absent for
Ryan called for the reintro-
IRISH duction of the wolves to help where we think Irish people 250 years might undermine crime unit has
are ready to go to tackle the
existing conservation pro-
“rewild” parts of the country-
said.
grams and their reintroduc-
side.
bio-diversity and climate crisis
The
Joint
Mr Ryan told RTÉ news we face,” he said. tion would do considerable Committee on Children and Youth Affairs released a report last
the reintroduction of the crea- Minister for Heritage, damage to farming. C year that recommended that a digital safety commissioner’s
tures would create a real office could work with social media companies to find a “more
sense of wilderness and help accurate system” for children to verify their ages.
develop more resilient wood- Head of the cyber crime unit with An Garda Síochána,
lands.
“It would bring back a Michael Gubbins was asked if introducing age verification for
sense of wilderness and bring young people on social media sites would help to tackle anony-
back a sense of ecology in that mous social media accounts and cyber bullying.
those wolves would prey on “You can have legislation that says you must verify your age
deer, which are actually hold- and identity but myself and my colleagues find on a daily basis,
ing back forestry at the pres- you will have false IDs, passports and driver’s licenses,” he told
ent time,” said Mr Ryan. the Oireachtas Justice Committee as they consider new laws to
“You see what is happen- tackle non consensual sharing of intimate images and online
ing with other countries that harassment.
you actually restore natural “People will figure a way around how to avoid giving correct
ecosystems that are more age and they will produce something that verifies an age and an
resilient and that are more identity.
“If they want to, they will find a way around it.
“Anyone that’s serious about hiding their identity.. despite leg-
islation, despite verification, will figure a way around it,” he said.
The committee heard an increasing number of children are
sharing sexually explicit photographs of themselves on
WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram messenger apps.
“There’s an added danger when images are circulated outside
confines of friends or otherwise become available to third parties,
who may then use them as a trap to engage with a child or set up
fake profiles using the images,” said Mr Gubbins.
The committee was told a teenage girl wanted to take her
own life after a former boyfriend she sent intimate images to,
shared them without her permission.
The young woman’s case was outlined by the Irish Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) who take up to
1,000 calls a day from children.
Chief executive of the ISPCC said Joe Church said: “A 16-year-
old girl told us she sent images to a former boyfriend, who then
shared them with others without her permission.
“With these images as circulating widely, this girl told
Childline she could not face going back to school and was con-
templating suicide.”
Mr Church said the ISPCC does not advocate the criminaliza-
tion of under-18s who carry out such offenses and said they
should be “educated and empowered to act differently in future.”
“Young people told told the Law Reform Commission in 2016
that they felt practices such as identity theft, online harassment,
and the non consensual sharing of intimate images should be
made illegal,” he said.
“However, we are acutely aware of the need for an age appro-
priate response to the proposed offenses not as outlined in this
Bill.
“By their nature, children and young people do not have the
maturity levels of adult adults, they may exhibit a greater tenden-
cy to be impulsive and they may not fully comprehend the con-
sequences of their actions online,” said Mr Church.
He said a more appropriate response would see them referred
to the Garda Youth Diversion Program. C