Simon Harris calls for social media ban for children under 16

Do you think social media should be banned for under-16s?

Harris believes that the digital age of consent, which is 16 in Ireland, needs to be enforced properly.

In an interview with Ireland AM, the Tánaiste stressed that we need to see a "baring of teeth" when it comes to social media and children in Ireland.

He told the programme: "The era of self-regulation is now over. There are now laws. There are now fines that can be levied. The European Commission this week has now opened an investigation into (AI tool) Grok."

“We need to actually see kind of a bit of baring of teeth here – there are actually laws, and they [social media companies] can’t be above the law.

Harris said, "This cannot be the wild west anymore," and believes we need to go further in Ireland when it comes to children's access to social media.

“This can’t be the wild west anymore. I think we’re going to have to go further in this country though. We have a digital age of consent, that’s 16.

“We have to start actually enforcing that, and there’s good work being done on that," he revealed.

“We’re going to start by March asking social media companies – and some of them are up for this, by the way – to take part in the rollout of age verification.

“But quite frankly, I believe we need to get to a point where if you’re under the age of 16, you can’t be on social media.”