{"id":325055,"date":"2026-02-07T11:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T11:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/325055\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T11:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T11:18:07","slug":"three-quarters-of-voters-in-ireland-back-social-media-ban-for-under-16s-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/325055\/","title":{"rendered":"Three-quarters of voters in Ireland back social media ban for under-16s \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three-quarters of voters favour banning under-16s from accessing social media<\/a>, according to the latest Irish Times\/Ipsos opinion poll.<\/p>\n

In addition, 90 per cent of people are in favour of banning social media platforms that have broken the law by circulating illegal images.<\/p>\n

The poll results come as the European Commission<\/a> said it would take action to ban the most addictive features<\/a> of the TikTok<\/a> video platform, pushing the company to clamp down on \u201cinfinite scrolling\u201d, keeping people hooked on the app for hours at a time.<\/p>\n

TikTok \u2013 which has its European headquarters in Dublin \u2013 rejected the commission\u2019s findings and said it would challenge them.<\/p>\n

But the poll results suggest the public favours a tough line with social media companies, as the Government considers how best to deal with concerns over some of the content circulated on the platforms.<\/p>\n

When asked if they would be in favour of or against banning under-16s from access to social media, 76 per cent said they would like to see a ban. Even among the youngest cohort of voters, those aged 18-24, there is strong majority in favour of a ban.<\/p>\n

Several countries have already either introduced such bans or have promised to do so, while the Government here says it is examining the possibility.<\/p>\n

There is an overwhelming consensus on banning social media platforms that are found to have broken the law by circulating illegal images, with 90 per cent of voters in favour, and just 7 per cent against.<\/p>\n

There is also strong support for inserting a guarantee of neutrality into the Constitution, with 71 per cent of voters backing the idea, and just 18 per cent against it.<\/p>\n

However, a large majority of voters \u2013 85 per cent \u2013 say Ireland should \u201ctake more responsibility for our own defence\u201d. Currently Ireland relies on allies, especially the UK, to monitor and police Irish airspace and waters.<\/p>\n

A majority of voters who express a view say Ireland should keep the triple lock, which includes the requirement for a UN resolution before troops can be sent abroad on peacekeeping missions. The Government intends to abolish the requirement this year, citing deadlock on the UN security council which in effect gives its permanent members, including Russia, a veto on peacekeeping missions.<\/p>\n

But the margin is relatively tight \u2013 45 per cent favour keeping the triple lock, while 35 per cent want to get rid of it, with 21 per cent undecided.<\/p>\n

Voters are also split on whether Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> should meet US president Donald Trump<\/a> in Washington for the traditional St Patrick\u2019s Day visit. Almost half \u2013 48 per cent \u2013 say the Taoiseach should attend the White House, but only slightly fewer voters, 45 per cent, say he should decline the invitation.<\/p>\n

There is no ambiguity, however, on the question of inviting the US president to visit Ireland for the Irish Open, which will be held at his Doonbeg golf course this year. Just under a third (32 per cent) favour an invitation for Trump, with 61 per cent opposed.<\/p>\n

The poll was conducted among a representative sample of adults aged 18 years and upwards across 120 sampling points throughout all constituencies.<\/p>\n

Unlike most other opinion polls, The Irish Times\/Ipsos B&A series is conducted through face-to-face sampling. Personal in-home interviewing took place between January 30th and February 3rd. There were 1,200 interviews conducted and the accuracy is estimated at plus or minus 2.8 per cent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three-quarters of voters favour banning under-16s from accessing social media, according to the latest Irish Times\/Ipsos opinion poll.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,356,5766,13,14,6,75915,38418,11,12,15,16,5765,5,1114,1150,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-325055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-european-commission","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ipsos","16":"tag-irish-times-poll","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-micheal-martin","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-social-media","24":"tag-tiktok","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories","27":"tag-world","28":"tag-world-news","29":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116029076487395794","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325055","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=325055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}