Ireland's media regulator announces investigation into children's online safety

Ireland's online media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán (CnaM), has launched a formal investigation under the country's Online Safety Code into social media provider X over suspected failures in its child safety protections.

The inquiry follows assessments by the regulator's supervision team, which raised concerns regarding the ineffective deployment of age-assurance systems. Under the code, platforms must enforce mechanisms preventing children from accessing adult videos depicting pornography, gross and gratuitous violence, or acts of cruelty. Reliance on self-declaration does not constitute effective age verification.

Investigators will examine whether X maintains robust measures to protect minors from restricted content, and will scrutinise its parental control architecture. The inquiry will determine whether parental controls offer end-user oversight of material that could impair young people's physical, mental, or moral development, and whether these systems meet minimum mandatory functionality. The investigation will also evaluate whether the company sufficiently promotes available safeguards and provides parental control options to new users upon account registration.

Meanwhile in France, Reuters reports that President Emmanuel Macron has called on the European Commission to support an EU-wide social media ban for under-15s. 

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