All but four of Ireland’s Internet service providers signed on to a code of practice intended to safeguard Irish children online, the Irish press reported October 20.
“[They should be] named and shamed,” Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications chair Noel O’Flynn said of the four holdouts, after the committee was informed by the Internet Advisory Board that the ISPs had yet to sign.
IAB chair Audrey Conlon told reporters the holdup appeared to involve the definition of obscenity or indecency under current law proving a difficulty in interpreting the law. She said the IAB was reviewing “sophisticated filtering technology” to block porn and other “indecent” material from children.
O’Flynn tried reminding the IAB and his own commission of a case earlier this year involving a porn image sent to a County Cork schoolgirl. Deputy Tommy Broughan called for placing the IAB on a more solid legal footing to give it more significant powers to help enforce safeguards for children online.
Broughan said that while porn is a major concern with children, noting that it was too easy for children typing random words into search engines to come up with porn material in “an avalanche,” they also ran the risk of bumping into online gambling sites.
