Government plans to introduce a social media ban for under-16s could potentially drive children to more unregulated and dangerous corners of the internet, according to Social Democrats TD Sin\u00e9ad Gibney.<\/p>\n
Deputy Gibney, who is the party\u2019s media spokesperson, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is deeply frustrating to see this continued tunnel vision from the Government who seem intent on pursuing a social media ban for under-16s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile a ban sounds significant, in practice it means that social media becomes even more toxic and dangerous for those who do end up online. I still have serious concerns about privacy, protection of data, and the failure to address what has made social media such a toxic and harmful place to begin with.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve heard from Cybersafekids and the Children’s Rights Alliance that there’s no sufficient evidence that a ban would be effective in protecting children. In fact, there is a danger that a ban on selected websites could just push them into more unregulated and dangerous parts of the internet.<\/p>\n
\u201cExperts and witnesses who came before the Oireachtas Media Committee did not recommend a ban. What they did recommend, however, was turning toxic recommender algorithms off by default, and enforcing real fines and penalties for social media companies that fail to comply with the laws we have.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a problem with the user \u2013 it\u2019s a problem with the product. If any physical product was as harmful as the algorithms, they would be pulled from our shelves. Yet the Government has refused to look at solutions that put the onus on social media companies to clean up their platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
June 18, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Government plans to introduce a social media ban for under-16s could potentially drive children to more unregulated and dangerous corners of the internet, according to Social Democrats TD Sin\u00e9ad Gibney. Deputy Gibney, who is the party\u2019s media spokesperson, said: \u201cIt is deeply frustrating to see this continued tunnel vision from the Government who seem intent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[540,808,7,497,688],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-children","category-media","category-press-release","category-sinead-gibney","category-social-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n