Tech firms put profit before child protection

WOULD you let your 12-year-old child walk into Cork city centre alone on a Saturday night? Probably not, right? What if I told you that it is probably a safer option than some of the dangers that they will be exposed to from the smartphones in their pocket?

In 2020, Hotline.ie, an Irish national online reporting centre, recorded 325 sites with self- generated sexually explicit images. By 2023, this figure had grown to 4,322 sites; 97% of those images were of girls. More than half were of the images were of pre-teens, between the ages of eight and 12, with the remainder coming from the 12-17 group.

Nicole ‘Coco’ Fox took her own life at 21 after being relentlessly bullied online and abused physically for three years. In the wake of that tragedy, we introduced Coco’s Law in 2020. It criminalises the non-consensual taking and distribution of intimate images with jail terms of up to seven years.

A culture has continued whereby teenagers, pre-teens and children feel pressured to send nude pictures of themselves online. This can have devastating mental health consequences in the long run.

A recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that the proportion of adolescents who reported being cyberbullied has increased since 2018, from 12% to 15% for boys and 13% to 16% for girls.

The survey referenced young people spending up to six hours a day on their phones.

A recent British study, referenced by the BBC, found that sexism is on the rise in schools because of harmful content on children’s phones. The study referenced young boys watching “aggressive and violent pornography” and influencer content that “completely distorts their view of women”.

Criminal liability for tech bosses

The tech platforms and social media companies have flaunted regulations designed to protect our children from harmful content. They do so because they are making serious profits on the back of our children.

If we want to start making them sit up and listen, then we need to implement and enforce a series of new criminal sanctions that would target the senior executives of social media companies who oversee the distribution of illegal, harmful, violent and pornographic content to children across Europe on their platforms.

Proper age verification

A colleague’s eight-year-old nephew was recently able to demonstrate how they could register a TikTok account in just five clicks by using a false date of birth.

The tech platforms and social media giants are reluctant to introduce new robust age verification measures because it will limit the amount of children that use their platforms and therefore limit their profits.

They simply do not care about the fact that our children are being bullied and exposed to violence, pornography, gambling, suicide ideation and other harmful content.

The EU Commission has formed a task force to examine the issue of best practice when it comes to age verification for minors.

The problem is that while bureaucrats are talking, children in Cork are exposed. It is up to the tech giants whether they use biometrics or other technologies to verify age.

What matters is that they have put in place robust age verification that will not allow an eight year old to register an account.

Tackling the problem at a European level

We need to tackle the social media giants together with our EU colleagues in order to avoid a series of fragmented national strategies. Ireland, and Irish MEPS, need to play a leading role on child protection because we are home to most of the world’s largest tech companies and it is our regulators, Coimisiún na Meán, who are responsible for policing the activities of the social media companies and tech giants.

The role of Coimisiún na Meán

The new Digital Services act (DSA), which was voted through the European Parliament, requires tech giants and social media companies to take steps to make the internet safer for users by addressing harmful or illegal content on their sites.

Coimisiún na Meán will supervise, enforce and monitor the implementation of the DSA.

I trust they are up for the fight when it comes to slapping hefty fines and penalties on those tech giants who are dragging their heels when it comes to child protection, and instead targeting children for profit.

Conclusion

Rachel Harper, principal of St Patrick’s National school in Greystones, is championing a movement that has seen the removal of smartphones from school property in several schools across Wicklow. This voluntary movement is a template that can be followed across Cork.

Legislators can take action on a range of issues, but we are going nowhere until we have full buy in from parents, who need to be part of the solution.

As a working mother of two, I understand that parenting can be difficult, in particular when you don’t understand the technology, but your children will thank you in the long run for intervening. I have no doubt that we will look back on this issue in 40 years and wonder why we did not recognise the damage that smartphones are doing to our children.

Unfortunately, it will be too late at that stage for a generation of children who grew up exposed to violence, pornography and bullying - from right there in their own pocket.