Irish Online Safety Code and guidance

On 21 October, Coimisiún na Meán published  the Irish Online Safety Code and accompanying guidance. Coimisiún na Meán is Ireland’s media regulator and  the Digital Services Coordinator for the Digital Services Act.

Under the Audio-visual Media Services Directive, the Online Safety Code provides a set of binding rules for 10 designated Video-Sharing Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Udemy, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, Pinterest, Tumblr and Reddit. The Code will enter partially in force in 28 days with an additional time period for specific obligations until July 2025.

As part of the Online Safety Framework which includes the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022, the EU Digital Services Act and the EU Terrorist Content Online Regulation, the Online Safety Fact seeks to address the root causes of harm online and to ensure that companies make their platforms safer, especially for children.

Video-sharing platforms must take appropriate measures to protect children from content that may impair their physical, mental or moral development. Those measures encompasses the establishment of adequate reporting and flagging mechanisms, age verification, parental control systems and content rating systems. They must also provide for effective media literacy measures and tools. In addition, the profiling of children is prohibited and the personal data of children collected in relation to age verification and parental controls cannot be processed for commercial purposes.

5Rights believes that the Online Safety Code is an opportunity to reinforce the Online Safety framework and must be applied in a complementary and consistent manner with the Digital Services Act. As Ireland is the main place of establishment of many online platforms, Coimisiún na Meán has a particular responsibility to ensure the effectiveness of the Online Safety Framework and to ultimately advance the protection of children’s rights online.