Children’s Rights Alliance, ISPCC and other leading children’s organisations welcome defeat of amendment to raise the Digital Age of Consent to 16

The Children’s Rights Alliance and the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC), together with Spunout.ie, CyberSafeIreland and leading experts in the area of child safety and online support have today (02.05.2018) joined forces on the digital age of consent.

Following several attempts to amend the Data Protection Bill 2018 to increase the digital age of consent to 16, the organisations have welcomed that an amendment on increasing the age to 16 has been this morning defeated. The organisations gathered today are calling on TDs to retain this age at 13 at report and final stage of the Bill.

Commenting at today’s press conference in the Alex Hotel, Dublin, Tanya Ward, Chief Executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance, said, “There have been several attempts to make amendments to the age of digital consent set out in legislation so we are pleased that common sense has prevailed today. Key bodies working for and with children have recommended 13 years as the age of digital consent. Children’s individual rights must be valued, and raising the age of consent to 16 will potentially undermine child protection measures and result in some services potentially being withdrawn.

“There are many reasons why children’s interests are best served by retaining the age at 13. We should be approaching this with a calm head. A number of amendments have also been tabled which strengthen children’s protection online and we welcome these.”

Grainia Long from the ISPCC said, “Online safety is the child protection issue of our time. No one should confuse data protection and the need to ensure children’s safety online with imposing unworkable restrictions on children’s use of services.  We welcome the huge interest in the issue of children’s online safety in recent weeks. The defeat of this amendment is a positive sign that the voice of the child is being heard.

“In recent debates, many elected representatives have made it clear that they want to do the right thing, to keep children safe online. We now need to see that interest translated into action. Listening to the views of the many respected academics, experts in child protection and child safety online who have recommended the age of digital consent be retained at 13 is crucial to this. Everyone who wants to keep children safe online agrees in the need for education in this area, and we need to see swift action to develop an Action Plan on Online Safety and the immediate creation of the Office of Digital Safety Commissioner. These are key measures that would make a real difference to children’s safety online.”