A draft bill to make the internet safer for children will be ineffective without an Online Safety Commissioner to handle individual complaints.
That’s according to the Children’s Rights Alliance and the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre.
So they say the current proposal doesn’t go far enough to curb the spread of harmful online content.
Currently, the new online safety bill proposes introducing a regulatory framework.
That would see online platforms bring in measures to protect users from potentially harmful content.
However, a number of groups are calling for an Online Safety Commissioner, similar to the Children’s Ombudsman.
They want the Government to introduce one to deal with specific complaints.
Julie Ahern from the Children’s Alliance explains:
"We want as few people as possible using an individual complaints mechanism."
"What we'd love to see is that, if someone has something said about them online, some sort of harm."
"They could report to the platform and it'd be sorted."
However, she says, "in instances where it can't be that they'd have an easy, accessible system to get it dealt with quickly and effectively."
"In a way that ensures that their rights are respected and protected."
Thank you to our expert panellists today. Your insights, expertise and vision around getting #OSMRBill for children is inspiring - Peter Tyndall @OicIreland, Dr Karen McAuley @OCO_ireland @Noeline_B @DublinRCC and @juliecahern #123OnlineSafety pic.twitter.com/X9pL2uuiHj
— Children's Rights Alliance (@ChildRightsIRL) July 13, 2021
Rape Crisis Centre Worried About Abusive Images
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre is Noeline Blackwell.
She says platforms should face sanctions if they don’t deal with non-consensual images correctly:
Sharing intimate images, shares faster."
"There's more commercial value in those kinds of abusive images than there is in less-abusive images."
"So there's a commercial in-sensitive to not take down harmful material."
The Oireachtas Committee on Media is currently considering the draft bill.
