CyberSafeKids

‼️ Ireland's new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Bill is 180 pages long.

The word "child" doesn't appear once.

Right now, children across Ireland are spending hours every day in AI-driven environments: interacting with AI chatbots, recommendation algorithms, and AI-powered games.

This Bill — as written — offers them no clear protection.

We've seen what happens when we let technology scale faster than regulation. With social media, children paid the price. We can't make the same mistake twice.

That’s why we’re submitting a response to the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment today, calling for real, enforceable protections for children, including:

1. A named regulator for child-facing AI,
2. Mandatory Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIAs) before products go live,
3. Age verification for AI chatbots,
4. A complaints process that actually works for families.

Silence on children is not a neutral position.

Ireland now has a chance to get this right — and with our EU Council Presidency beginning in July, a chance to lead on it across Europe too.

We urge the Committee to ensure that children are explicitly recognised and protected in the final legislation.

If you or your organisation want to help ensure children are protected, you can make a submission ➡️ https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/committees/making-a-submission/public-consultations/20260306-public-consultation-on-the-pre-legislative-scrutiny-of-the-general-scheme-of-the-regulation-of-the-artificial-intelligence-bill-2026/

See General Scheme of the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026

➡️https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/legislation/legislation-files/general-scheme-of-the-regulation-of-artificial-intelligence-bill-2026.pdf

📧 The closing date for receipt of submissions to [email protected] is 5:30 p.m. on Monday, 13 April 2026.

James O'Connor TD Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy - SERP Institute Children's Rights Alliance

‼️ This is not an April Fool’s joke. From 3 April 2026, online platforms in the EU will no longer be able to detect child sexual abuse material.

That means fewer reports to authorities, fewer investigations, and fewer children identified and protected. In 2021, when this system briefly stopped, reports dropped by 58%.

Behind every image is a child. And every day without detection means more harm.

247 children’s rights organisations from across Europe (including the Children's Rights Alliance, CyberSafeKids, Childline by ISPCC, Hotline.ie) and beyond are calling on policymakers to act urgently and ensure a permanent framework for detection. Children cannot pay the price of political deadlock.

“This is about are they going to suffer some of the most horrific abuse and exploitation that any child could suffer. No child should have to encounter it and certainly they should be protected from it. That same level of urgency and conviction is not there to protect children as it is to protect the privacy and freedom of speech.” - Noeline Blackwell, Children's Rights AllianceChildren's Rights Alliance.

Read and share the European Child Sexual Abuse Legislation Advocacy Group's (ECLAG) full statement ➡️https://childsafetyineurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026.04.01_Joint-Statement-on-the-end-of-EU-legal-basis-to-detect-CSA.pdf

‼️ "This week​'s landmark rulings in two American courtrooms might just​ be the first indication that the once impenetrable walls of Big Tech have finally been breached​," ​​writes Philip Arneill, head of communications & research​ at CyberSafeKids in today's Irish Mail on Sunday​.

P​hilip argues that Big Tech companies like Meta and Google may finally be facing meaningful accountability after years of operating behind secrecy, legal protections, and​ a "relentlessly profit-driven​ algorithm​." Recent U.S. court rulings found these platforms contributed to harm, particularly to children, including ​intentional addictive design and failures to prevent exploitation, signaling a potential turning point similar to the legal reckoning faced by Big To***co in the 1990s.

Despite relatively small financial penalties, the cases could have wider implications by challenging longstanding legal shields like Section 230 and reframing social media platforms as products that ​"must be subject to the same rigorous testing that toys, games and​ leisure equipment undergo in the EU to protect users from harm.​" ​

H​e highlights the vulnerability of ​"children and young people who have unprecedented (and underage) access to platforms not designed for them" arguing that these rulings expose systemic harm and may mark the beginning of sustained legal and societal pressure on Big Tech.

​"These landmark cases have once and for all proved, however, that children are being damaged​ by their online experiences, and we have been sold a lie.​ In the Californian case this week, the plaintiff – known only as Kaley or KMG – was awarded $6 million​ (€5.2 million) in damages. Again, pocket change for Meta, but this case is just the first of over 1,500​ also pending in US courts. The companies will of course appeal, and use all their resources,​ legal might and political influence to evade responsibility, but the old excuses are now looking​much flimsier. Like the to***co companies of the 1990s found, once the walls have been​ breached, and that seeming invincibility is challenged, those same walls are very, very hard to​ repair.​" ⬇️ ⬇️