Minister says 'a step change' needed around child sexual abuse images online

Vivienne Clarke

Helen McEntee said there needs to be “a step change” in the response of social media platforms who need to do more to combat the levels of child sexual abuse material online.

The Minister for Justice told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that child sexual abuse was a growing problem.

"While technology is amazing, it has enabled this type of abuse. We have very strong laws in this regard. Our guards are doing fantastic work. We have a specialised unit within An Garda Siochana specifically focused on this.

“Coimisiún na Meán will be responsible for making sure that illegal content like child sexual abuse material is taken down. But I believe we need to do more.

"The facial recognition legislation that I would bring forward in the coming weeks will allow Gardai to use facial recognition to try and identify victims, but also perpetrators. But beyond that, I believe our biggest challenge is the fact that more and more of this type of abuse material is going to the dark web.

"So it's going into end-to-end encryption. It's going into spaces where gardaí and others cannot access them. That is why at a European level, I believe we need to do more.

"I've been working closely with my colleague, Commissioner Johansson, who is absolutely determined that as a unit, as a union, we work on this and that companies do more. I believe that they can do more. We are not there yet, but absolutely there needs to be a step change here as well, because this is an issue that is growing. It is getting worse. And I believe that we can do more.”

Ms Entee said that Budget 2025 would ensure that “money is not a problem” when it comes to recruitment and additional staff to free up gardaí for frontline policing.

"For the first time in seven years, we now have a reserve campaign, which means that you then have additional support for Garda, for the large events, for the concerts, for the festivals, for the events that we see happening more regularly that gardaí have to police as well. So all of this is assisting the work of the Garda while also ensuring that we have a budget.

“This year alone we are spending €155 million on new technologies, on assistance for Garda to make sure that when they arise they can stay doing their job on the beat.

"There is €100 million more being spent. Body cameras, handheld devices, better equipment, better technology, so that when the gardaí that we have are out on the beat, they are not having to go back to the station, they are able to stay in communities and use the most up-to-date equipment,"

She said so much crime is online, and they are seeing from the hotline reports that so many of the difficulties that are taking place are online.

Ms McEntee said technology, such as an app that will allow gardaí to tell if a car is insured or not, will make a difference, which was why the announcement of €9 million for static speed cameras, was really important.