No age checks on social media on first day of big crackdown

FOUR major social media sites did not have age-verification controls in place on the first day of a new crackdown in Ireland.

- BY CIARA O'LOUGHLIN

From yesterday new online safety rules came in place requiring video-sharing platforms that have their EU headquarters in Ireland to have effective age verification systems in place where adult content can be accessed.

However, we were able to open new accounts as an adult on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and X without any verification.

Each site simply asked to input a date of birth that a child could easily lie about.

This is despite Coimisiun na Mean stressing that self-declaration is not permitted as a method of age verification.