
Disturbing AI-generated child sex abuse material ‘increasing in prevalence' as new media watchdog makes protection vow
Coimisiun na Mean today launched its first three-year strategy as they vowed to protect children online and clamp down on disinformation.
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The new State body will also roll out a media campaign to advise the public how to identify and report
The Coimisiun was set up by the last
The watchdog has this week published its first long-term plan as they look to make both online and broadcast media a safer place for children.
Speaking at the launch of the plan today, Commissioner Niamh Hodnett issued a stark warning about an increase in child sex abuse images – in particular images created with
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She said: 'There are two types we are concerned about, one is self-generated by
'The other we are concerned about is AI-generated child sex abuse material which has been made by artificial intelligence.
'Both are increasing in prevalence and we are very concerned about that.'
Coimisiun na Mean has identified child protection as one of the key areas in their first three-year plan.
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In a section laying out how they will do this, the Commission say they will take on
They will also run a campaign advising the public on how to make a complaint about illegal or harmful content they see online.
Deepfakes more 'sophisticated' and dangerous than ever as AI expert warns of six upgrades that let them trick your eyes
On disinformation, the Commission will team up with other EU regulators and State bodies, such as
Executive Chair of Coimisiun na Mean, Jeremy Godfrey, said protecting young people and clamping down on disinformation were key objectives.
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He said: 'Our six outcomes are ambitious and reflect our commitment to the regulation, support, and development of a media landscape that underpins fundamental rights and fosters an open, democratic and pluralistic society.
'As Ireland's media landscape evolves, we feel a unique responsibility to ensure that we shape the changing media environment to better serve Irish audiences, to uphold fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, and to protect people, especially children, from harm.''
The State body has identified six key areas it wants to focus on; children, democracy, trust, Irish culture, diversity and public safety.
The Commission will promote the creation of Irish educational and cultural material specifically designed for children.
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The Commission has also started preparing for the presidential election later this year where they will focus on protecting democracy and combatting disinformation in the campaign.
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Ireland new media watchdog has warned about the rise of AI-generated child sex abuse images online

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RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Trump claims victory on trade - but EU had little choice
In many respects US President Donald Trump achieved his aims by introducing a swath of tariffs with America's main trading partners around the world. The European Union has a population of 448 million compared to the US which has 340 million. However, the US economy is larger. Many have been surprised at the way Donald Trump has appeared to be able to dictate terms to Europe. His announcement yesterday that he would commence the new tariff arrangements from 7 August appeared to be his decision with little input from the EU. President of the European Commission Ursula Von Der Leyen has defended the deal, which will see tariffs of 15% imposed on EU goods. There are two reasons why the EU did not want a full blown trade war with Mr Trump. Firstly, European businesses were opposed to a prolonged period of tit-for-tat tariffs with enormously damaging consequences. Secondly, if relations with Mr Trump soured, he could threaten to row back on defence commitments. The EU is highly reliant on the US for arm supplies, funding for NATO and military support for Ukraine. But looking at scale of tariffs imposed on other countries the EU's 15% does not seem too damaging compared to India's 25%, Canada's 35% and Switzerland's 39%. Most of the US' main trading partners have rates of 15% or 20%. The exception is the UK's 10% tariff. However, this is not an all-inclusive rate. In other words, other rates can be added to it. Nor does Britain have a written agreement capping pharmaceutical tariffs unlike the EU. It is worth bearing in mind that while tariffs on European goods go up, Mr Trump stated the EU would be "opening up their countries at zero tariffs" for US exports. Unanswered questions From the Irish point of view there are still many unanswered questions. There is no agreement on alcohol exports to the US. That sector was expected to be covered by a zero-for-zero tariff arrangement but that has not yet been confirmed. This is critical for Ireland's whiskey industry and the EU's wine exports. It seems clear that pharmaceuticals and computer chips will face tariffs of up to 15%, but the timing is still uncertain. Both are subject of so-called Section 232 investigations because Mr Trump believes the US' use of imports is a national security issue. Tánaiste Simon Harris said the tariffs for sectors under investigation will not become clear until those processes are concluded. For pharmaceuticals that is expected to happen in two weeks. But the fact that the EU-US agreement won't exceed 15% does provide some clarity for the industry. Bank of Ireland pointed out that drugs are relatively inelastic, which means if prices go up people still buy them because they are prescribed by doctors. The new swath of tariffs come at a time when the dollar has been weakening and making EU exports to the US more expensive at the worst possible time. Then there is the question of what this all means for the Irish economy. In March, the Department of Finance and the Economic Social Research Institute published research on the impact of tariffs on the Irish economy. It looks at a range of scenarios from tariffs of 10% to 25%. Based on that analysis, officials at the Department of Finance told business leaders yesterday that the economy would continue to expand, but at a slower pace than previously expected. Employment will grow but at a slower rate. The Government will now have to decide how all this will impact the Budget in October. But while Mr Trump may believe he has achieved his aims on tariffs, in the long run his actions carry the risk of higher inflation in the US and undermining the American economy.


Sunday World
3 hours ago
- Sunday World
Ex-Provo says he's proud IRA chiefs asked him to tell world their war was over
Séanna Walsh became the first IRA man for decades to stand in front of a camera and talk on behalf of the organisation without a mask Seanna Walsh, announces that IRA leadership has formally ordered an end to its armed campaign in 2005. The former Provo who told the world the IRA's war was over has revealed it remains one of the proudest moments of his life – but he had to get his daughters' approval first. Séanna Walsh spoke to the Sunday World on the week of the 20th anniversary of the jaw-dropping statement that declared an end to the IRA's violent campaign which saw them murder more than 1,700 people. On July 28, 2005, Séanna became the first IRA man for decades to stand in front of a camera and talk on behalf of the organisation without a mask. In a DVD that was distributed all over the world, he said the terrorist group was laying down its arms and was committing to a new peaceful strategy of achieving its goal of a united Ireland. Not everyone believed them but 20 years on only the most diehard unionist would argue that the IRA still exists as a violent force. Seanna Walsh, announces that IRA leadership has formally ordered an end to its armed campaign in 2005. Séanna (68) reveals this week why he thinks he was chosen to deliver that message, how he had check it was okay with his family first and how he feels about it 20 years later. While a number of ceasefires had been announced and collapsed since 1994, the 2005 statement saw the start of the decommissioning of weapons. The IRA statement delivered by Séanna said that members had been instructed to use exclusively peaceful means and not to engage in any other activities whatsoever. 'I had to be unmasked,' says Séanna – now a Sinn Féin Belfast city councillor – told the Sunday World. 'It had to be that way because we were doing something different. 'It was the defining moment of my life as a republican and I'm very proud of the fact the IRA leadership asked me to be the person to read the statement. 'I wasn't wearing a mask because we had to move away from that but I wasn't worried because I was quite convinced the days of the armed conflict were over. Séanna Walsh reflects on delivering historic IRA statement 20 years on News in 90 Seconds, Friday August 1 'It was made in the grounds of the Roddy's (Roddy McCorley's Club) and there's a museum there today and you can push the button and play the video and actually there's a recording of me reading the statement in English but also in Irish.' Walsh was a 48-year-old father-of-three when he made the statement which lasted just over four minutes and was filmed in the grounds of the west Belfast club. By then he'd already been in jail three times for his role in violent republicanism – in fact by the time he was released in 1998 he'd spent more time behind bars than out – and his track record was one of the reasons he believes he was chosen to read out the statement. 'I didn't ask them why I was chosen,' says Walsh. 'I was approached by an IRA comrade and that's as much as I can say. I suppose it's because I was confident enough to do it. 'I think they asked me because of the fact I'd served time in the Cages (Long Kesh), where I first met Bobby Sands, and where I shared a cell with him and we became very close friends. 'Then during the hunger strike period I was back in the H-Blocks and suffered the abuse of the blanket protest and was then in charge of the H-Blocks after Bik McFarlane stood down. 'On being released I went back to the struggle and was recaptured a third time and sentenced to 22 years the third time and was finally released in 1998. 'When I was asked would I be prepared to be the one to read the statement to camera and this would go out globally, I had to take a step back and I told them I'll have to think about this because I have three daughters, two of which were teens and the other was only a child. 'I needed to sit down and go through it all with my family – my wife is a long-standing republican in her own right and shared a cell in jail in Armagh with Mairéad Farrell for a number of years. 'So my wife was okay with it and the girls were absolutely supportive – the one thing I was most concerned about was the way that stuff like this can impact on their opportunities to travel and them being at that age. 'So I sat down with them and talked it over with them and I came back and said 'yes I'll do it'. I was a bit concerned about putting myself above the parapet and making myself a target of abuse because we were putting it up to the establishment in a way we hadn't really done before.' For the record, Walsh was jailed for terrorist offences including robbing banks, having a rifle and being caught with explosives but he sticks by the controversial claim that there was 'no alternative'. But he says the growth of Sinn Féin in the Republic actually pushed the IRA closer to a ceasefire as they found Dublin a colder house than before. 'Nationalists and certainly republicans felt there was no alternative to armed struggle but when republicans were convinced that there was a viable alternative to ending British government interference in this part of Ireland without recourse to armed struggle, they jumped at it with both hands and grasped it,' he says. 'To talk about 2005 you really have to talk about the statement Gerry Adams made in April where he talks about the time is now right for the IRA to leave the stage. 'That triggered a whole period of consultation across the republican family... it was time for the IRA to leave the stage because it was leading to excuses on the part of other people, the people in opposition to ourselves. 'When you look back in the years when Sinn Féin was a political party and their strength lay in the North, the Dublin government were a lot less hostile after the IRA ceasefire but Sinn Féin's strength was growing in the south and they were becoming, as far as they were concerned, a threat politically to the southern establishment and that's when things started becoming problematic with the Dublin government.' He says the archives will show that neither unionism nor the British government believed his statement was completely genuine. 'If you look back at the archives the British downplayed it, the unionists totally poo-pooed it and even then later in the year when you had the statement from De Chastelain (chairman of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning), that he was satisfied guns had been put beyond use you still had this scepticism in unionism that didn't believe it.' Last weekend, Séanna took part in a discussion about his historic statement along with Gerry Adams, chaired by Mairéad Farrell TD – niece of IRA member Mairéad who was shot dead in Gibraltar – in Belfast's Balmoral Hotel. Speaking before the event, Gerry Adams voiced regret that the statement of 2005 took so long to come, suggesting the UK government was focused on 'defeating republicanism'. He said: 'It took decades and one of my regrets is that it took so long. In my humble opinion it took so long because the two governments, particularly the British government, only sought peace on its terms, which meant defeat the IRA, it meant defeat republicanism and that doesn't work, our people are resolute.' He added: 'The proof of it is that 20 years later the IRA isn't a feature.'


Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
Person pretending to be Tusla worker turned up at children's residential unit on night shift
Someone pretending to be a Tusla agency worker gained entry to a residential unit for children and 'obtained unauthorised access' to their personal data, records released to The Irish Times show. The 'high-risk' incident happened when the individual used the 'credentials of an authorised person working at the unit' rostered that night. They remained at the unit overnight, with access to the children, their files and the personal data of people who worked there. 'The 'unauthorised party' was acting with the assistance of the 'authorised operative',' the records also stated. READ MORE 'The other authorised staff who were coming off duty or coming on duty would not have known of the full identity (other than name) of the other external recruitment agency worker who was rostered to work that night shift, as this was a recent recruit who the staff would not have worked with before. 'Therefore, 'bona fides' of the 'bad actor' were not in question and [other staff] had no reason to suspect 'personation'/'false identity'.' The incident, which happened on June 27th, 2023, was reported to Tusla's data protection unit three days later. The affected children, staff and the Data Protection Commission were alerted. A review of this incident found 'no suggestion that any service user was adversely impacted', a Tusla spokesman said. Details of the incident, which was categorised 'high risk' and as an 'access control deficit', are contained in a large release of records under the Freedom of Information Act on personal data breaches at Tusla, which is the Child and Family Agency. They show there were 2,184 breaches between 2019 and the end of 2024, with about 150 more to July 5th this year. In another high-risk incident, files containing 'personal data' were missing for 26 years when found in the 'private home' of a former Tusla staff member. The incident in the southeast came to light in January last year. 'Staff member had originally taken the files home in 1998 to work on and had left them in a home study where they went unnoticed/undiscovered until recently,' a description states. 'Files were absent (location unknown) and unavailable to Tusla (and predecessor agencies) during this period when business needs did arise that required access by Tusla to some of the files. 'No backup copies of the data was available to Tusla during the period the data was absent from Tusla control.' It was recorded as a 'misplaced/lost/exposed record or device'. Almost a quarter (515) of the breaches during the six years were 'high risk', with 58 per cent (1,274) categorised as 'low risk', 11 per cent (243) 'zero' risk and 6.5 per cent (143) 'medium' risk. In 2021 about a third (117 out of 362) were high-risk breaches. The most common breaches (706) were emails sent to the wrong address. A total of 383 were caused by 'information overshare'. This could be when a file was sent to a person with their own details, but also containing details about other people they had no right to see. A breach similar to this allegedly occurred this year when the whereabouts of a mother and child fleeing abuse were provided to their alleged abuser. The alleged abuser had sought their own file from Tusla following an allegation of abuse against them. David Hall , chief executive of Sonas domestic violence charity, which was accommodating the mother and 'very young child', said Tusla failed to redact both the name of the shelter where the woman and child were staying and that of a domestic violence support worker who reported the alleged abuse, putting them all 'at risk'. When the alleged breach came to light in March, he said the data of women and children fleeing domestic violence were 'not safe'. On Friday he said he had not received satisfactory assurances from Tusla that 'vulnerable women and children's' data was safe. Other breaches since 2019 include 348 incidents of 'misplaced/lost/exposed record or device'; 273 'incorrect record shared'; 120 'access control deficit'; and 35 'misdirected phone call or message' – including Tusla staff leaving messages with the intended recipient's personal details on the wrong number. Tusla's national adoption information and tracing service had the highest volume of high-risk breaches between 2022 and 2024 – accounting for 19 per cent (56) of the 295 such breaches in those years, mainly concerning too much information released to people seeking their birth and early-life history, including information about other people. These new figures come as the cost to Tusla since 2020, due to personal breaches, tops €500,000. Figures released under FoI show the agency has paid damages of €134,500 for data breaches since 2022, incurring related legal costs of €177,164. These are in addition to fines levied by the Data Protection Commission (DPC) in 2020 totalling €200,000. The DPC conducted three investigations into Tusla in 2020 for alleged breaches of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), resulting in separate fines of €75,000, €40,000, €50,000 and €35,000. The DPC ordered Tusla to 'bring its processing operations into compliance ... by implementing appropriate organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk'. Breaches have however increased since – from 362 in 2020 and 362 in 2021 to 408 for 2022, 481 in 2023 and 441 last year. The DPC has not investigated Tusla since August 2020, a spokesman confirmed, but has 'continued to engage with Tusla after the conclusion of all inquiries undertaken to ensure that the orders contained within the decisions issued were complied with. In addition, the DPC has regular and ongoing engagement with Tusla like we have with all other public sector bodies'. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties said the number of breaches was 'very concerning'. 'Tusla processes very sensitive data about vulnerable people, including children. We are not just talking about people's rights to privacy and data protection, but also in some cases their safety,' it said. 'These figures raise serious questions about how Tusla is carrying out its obligations under the GDPR and what policies and protocols are in place. The Data Protection Commission should examine these figures and take appropriate action.' A Tusla spokesman said: 'Due to the large volume of data we process daily ... breaches occasionally and regrettably occur, which can have a significant impact on those involved. 'We are fully aware of our responsibilities regarding the handling of sensitive data, and we take all breaches very seriously. 'In the case of any data breach, we will react quickly to inform impacted persons or their parent/caregiver of the breach, identify the cause and undertake a full assessment and comprehensive risk evaluation. 'Tusla conducts systematic reviews of all reported breach incidents, and we adapt and update training and operational practices to mitigate against similar breaches occurring in the future. 'We will continue to work with the DPC with full transparency on the matter, as appropriate. Where required, we take all possible steps to recover the information subject to the breach. 'Over the last number of years, a comprehensive programme of work has been under way ... to improve awareness in relation to data breaches, ensure staff are aware of their duty to report all breaches and to mitigate the risk of data breaches occurring.. 'Over the last year there has been a 63 per cent reduction in 'high-risk' breaches, a 29 per cent reduction in 'misaddressed post' and an 18 per cent decrease in 'information overshare' breaches.'