Ní Mhurchú says she will push for EU legislation to ban children from registering social media accounts until they are 16
Ireland South MEP candidate Cynthia Ní Mhurchú has said she will campaign to introduce legislation in the European Parliament, if elected, to raise the age at which a child can register for a social media account to 16 years old.
Ní Mhurchú made the pledge as she met with Parents Associations in Wicklow who are pushing for voluntary smartphone bans in schools.
According to Ní Mhurchú parents are waking up to the damage that smartphones and social media is doing to the development of our children,
“There are around 30 Parents Associations in the wider Greystones area of Wicklow who are introducing ‘parental voluntary opt-in no smartphones codes’ so schools can be smartphone free. They tell me they are being contacted every day by new Parents Associations from across Ireland who are looking to do something to prevent their children from the harm that social media can do to undeveloped minds”
Ní Mhurchú says that her commitment will be two fold,
“Firstly, we have to raise the minimum age to 16. The social media companies will fight hard on that one but with parents behind us, we can get it done. Secondly, we need to ensure they implement robust age verification to make sure that only children over 16 are registering for accounts. Again the social media companies will resist this measure as it will reduce the amount of users they will have across the EU. This is about putting child protection over profits”
Ní Mhurchú pointed to parental research conducted by Amárach on behalf of CyberSafekids, an Irish registered charity which works to empower children, parents and teachers to navigate the online world in a safe and responsible manner. The research found that 24% of 6-year-olds have their own smartphone. Further research from CyberSafeKids shows that 84pc of under 12s have their own social media or instant messaging account, despite these minimum age restrictions of 13 for social media apps.
Ní Mhurchú has questioned why the European Commission has not taken the tech giants to task over what she sees as their failure to protect innocent children.
