{"id":218243,"date":"2025-12-06T08:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T08:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/218243\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T08:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T08:28:08","slug":"new-digital-wallet-to-be-tested-within-months-to-restrict-social-media-access-in-ireland-for-under-16s-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/218243\/","title":{"rendered":"New digital wallet to be tested within months to restrict social media access in Ireland for under-16s \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new digital wallet to verify the age and identity of social media<\/a> users in Ireland is \u201cvery close\u201d to being launched and will be tested under a pilot scheme within the next four months.<\/p>\n

Minister for Media Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> said Ireland was moving forward with a plan to link online age verification to a Government ID, because of the \u201cregrettably\u201d slow pace of internet child protection measures at EU level. <\/p>\n

There is strong enthusiasm at the most senior levels of Government for Ireland to place more restrictions on children\u2019s social media use, but senior figures stopped short of backing an outright ban similar to the Australian one that is being introduced<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Donovan said the ban was \u201cone of the things that we are holding in reserve\u201d, while Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> said on Friday there needs to be \u201cmore debate on whether blanket bans are the way to go\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Attorney General is advising the Government on how to make the online age-verification system compatible with EU law designed to prevent access to social media for those aged under 16.<\/p>\n

While political leaders expect opposition to an age limit for social media from large tech companies, many of which base their European headquarters in Ireland, the Government has committed to making online child safety a key theme of its presidency of the council of the EU next year. <\/p>\n

Speaking from a European Council meeting, Mr O\u2019Donovan said he would have \u201cpreferred\u201d if the EU had worked in unison and with \u201ca bit more haste\u201d on online child safety.<\/p>\n

The digital wallet, based on the existing MyGovID online identity system, is the first step in Government plans to set an age limit for children on social media. One senior Government source on Friday night likened the age verification plan to being \u201cakin to\u201d the smoking ban. A pilot scheme for the wallet is planned for the first quarter of 2026. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Australia says world will follow social media ban as Meta starts blocking teensOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Donovan will bring a memo to Cabinet early next week on his digital wallet plan. It is being designed with the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, based at the Department of Public Expenditure, and with the Department of Social Protection, which is responsible for the existing MyGovID app, the State\u2019s official online identity platform used for social welfare payments.<\/p>\n

It is understood that there could be scope for the same wallet to be used to verify the identity of adults for other online platforms and services. <\/p>\n

Similar wallets are being developed in other European countries, as well as by the EU itself.<\/p>\n

This week, Australia will become the first country in the world to impose a social media ban for children aged 16 and under. <\/p>\n

Many European countries also favour new age limits for social media, though some feel that parents should still have the choice to allow a child aged between 13 and 16 to have a social media account. <\/p>\n

Speaking at the British Irish Council in Wales on Friday, Mr Martin said \u201coutright bans\u201d for children on social media \u201cneed to be examined in considerable detail\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said his experience as a teacher showed him it was better to develop \u201cself confidence and resilience\u201d among young people. <\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris expressed more forceful backing for regulation on Friday, saying Ireland\u2019s existing digital age of consent was 16 and \u201cthat should matter\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very supportive of the idea of social media being restricted to people above a certain age,\u201d Mr Harris said. <\/p>\n

Asked whether restricting social media use for children could impact on the significant foreign investment Ireland enjoys from Big Tech, Mr Harris said: \u201cFrom the perspective of the companies, the key to any business is certainty, clarity and stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Digital Rights Ireland<\/a> expressed concern on Friday that using the data from MyGovID or MyGovID itself to verify age and identity online was a \u201cmassive leap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would effectively make MyGovID a general purpose online \u2018identity card\u2019. It was originally intended to be used for purposes related to the State, but what is proposed here is that it be used when you use or buy a private sector service, in particular adult services,\u201d a spokesman said. <\/p>\n

\u201cDo people in Ireland really want an online identity card? What purposes do they want it to be used for? What are the restrictions?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new digital wallet to verify the age and identity of social media users in Ireland is \u201cvery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,118148,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5765,5,36103,1114,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-218243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-digital-rights-ireland","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-micheal-martin","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-patrick-o-donovan","24":"tag-social-media","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115671682772636760","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}