Senator Ronan Mullen Matt Letourneau
This Thursday, Seanad Éireann will debate the new Protection of Children (Online Age Verification) Bill 2024, introduced by Senator Rónán Mullen last week. According to Mr Mullen, “this Bill would require online providers of pornographic material to carry out strict age verification to ensure that U-18s cannot access their material.”
The proposed Bill is in response to the formulation of Coimisiún na Meán’s Code and Rules on pornography, which is still open to consultation. Although the Code includes age verification requirements, it does not “make robust age verification procedures mandatory for online providers of pornography,” according to Mr Mullen.
Therefore, the Bill combats this with seven points. The Bill would obligate internet service and app providers to ensure that minors can’t access pornography, require age verification processes, require State ministers to create a list or class of documents that require age verification, allow third-party organisations to run age verification procedures, make service and app providers liable for failing to apply measures, allow legal defence for providers and require the secure storage of age verification data.