Addictive online features should be disabled by default, report on use by children finds

Addictive features should be disabled by default on online platforms and this should be mandated by legislation or regulations, according to a report by the Oireachtas Committee on Children.The report on technology, social media and children, with a focus on online safety and wellbeing, follows meetings with organisations representing young people and teachers, the Garda, Coimisiún na Meán and various tech companies, among others.It contains 45 recommendations including that legislation or regulations “mandate the disabling of addictive features, including infinite scroll, autoplay, algorithmic amplification of harmful content, and behavioural profiling in all circumstances.”It also recommends a mandatory age classification system be set up for all digital products and services based on the risk they pose to child development – similar to mechanisms for toys and films.READ MORE“Regulation and accountability should be strengthened particularly in relation to platform design, recommender systems and algorithmic amplification to ensure the safety of children and young people,” it says. The committee has welcomed the planned EU Kids Act and set out its belief that “at a minimum children under 13 should not hold traditional social media accounts” – a measure the European Commission has proposed. “Based on evidence to the committee a blanket ban alone on social media use for children under 16 would unlikely provide a comprehensive solution to the harms experienced by children online.” The committee recommends that consideration be given to providing investigative and information-gathering powers to the Irish regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, before a formal investigation is opened.[ ‘Children are constantly doom scrolling’Opens in new window ]It says the same for “establishing a national taskforce including Departments, educators, parents, young people, and civil society groups to co-ordinate a coherent national response.”Committee chairwoman Kiera Keogh said: “Technology is evolving faster than our ability to regulate it, and that is why one of the strongest measures running throughout this report is that we cannot rely on regulation to simply catch up after harm has occurred.”She said there was a need to ensure children’s safety is built into digital products and platforms from the very beginning, adding: “We need safety by design rather than safety as an afterthought.”The Fine Gael TD spoke of how the committee heard about the online opportunities for children and young people for learning and communicating but also the “very serious harms” including cyberbullying, exposure to pornography and violent content, grooming, sexual exploitation, harmful algorithms, addictive design features and risks associated with artificial intelligence.In relation to the recommendation on mandating that addictive features be disabled by default she said: “It was pretty clear to us that the infinite scroll is what’s keeping kids online, you know, far beyond what they would want.”She said tech companies “can turn this off very quickly if needed”.Keogh said the committee wanted the Government to consider its recommendation for legislation or regulations in this area while also looking at the planned EU Kids Act – which will seek to limit features that can encourage excessive use, such as infinite scroll. Sinn Féin TD Ruairí Ó Murchú, also a committee member, said “tech firms are businesses that want to keep you online”.He expressed his belief that social media platforms “are incredibly dangerous” and they “need to be regulated to a huge degree” with “the enforcement to do that”.Labour Party Senator Nessa Cosgrove acknowledged that “the idea of safety by design is going to be really hard to implement to get the tech companies to go along with that.”