Online games and platforms marketed towards children which do not uphold child protection standards must be blocked until they can demonstrate compliance, according to Social Democrats children spokesperson Aidan Farrelly.<\/p>\n
Deputy Farrelly said:<\/p>\n
\u201cA senior garda from the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau has warned that children are being groomed and exploited on online gaming platforms on an \u2018alarming scale\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree US states have filed lawsuits against Roblox over child safety issues, while over 20 lawsuits accusing the game of enabling sexual exploitation have been filed in their federal courts this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver 150 million people log on to the game\u2019s servers daily, and a third of those are under the age of 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Roblox has proven to be a breeding ground for predatory behaviour, it\u2019s only one game – thousands of others, as well as social media platforms, are enabling child grooming.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to protecting children from the dangers of online gaming and social media, the Irish government has been entirely hands-off when it comes to regulation, and that is shameful.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn recent months we have seen tragic instances where children and young people have been failed in this regard – the State has an obligation to ensure the safety and welfare of children in every context, yet their use of online modes of communication gets little attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlatforms like Roblox are failing to protect their users, especially those who are children – last night\u2019s Prime Time report highlighted how users are not asked for age verification or parental permission to set up an account.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe content the investigation uncovered was often of a sexual, violent or disturbing nature, yet there are no safeguards to prevent children from accessing it – Garda\u00ed also uncovered cases of coercion, grooming and sexual exploitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot wait around for someone else to address this issue while our children are vulnerable.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil platforms marketed to children can show they\u2019re compliant with these standards, they should not be accessible – I\u2019m calling on the government to treat this issue with the seriousness it deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n
November 27th, 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Online games and platforms marketed towards children which do not uphold child protection standards must be blocked until they can demonstrate compliance, according to Social Democrats children spokesperson Aidan Farrelly. Deputy Farrelly said: \u201cA senior garda from the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau has warned that children are being groomed and exploited on online gaming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,540,592,7,693],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aidan-farrelly","category-children","category-online-safety","category-press-release","category-tusla"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n