Not only kids: Adults need protection from social media too, says Irish lawmaker

“Why can’t we switch off the recommender system for everybody?” Lynn Boylan tells EU Perspectives that Europe’s response to online harms must go beyond age limits and put greater responsibility on Big Tech.

After the announcement of the EU KIDS Act proposed by the European Commission, the debate is increasingly moving beyond age restrictions for who’s online and towards the design and safety of digital platforms themselves. But not only.

Irish MEP (The Left) Lynn Boylan told EU Perspectives that the EU Kids Act is a welcome step, but it does not yet address the wider impact of Big Tech on society. According to her, recommender systems, digital literacy and the use of AI by young people require a broader and “no age” approach.

What’s your take on the online hate and the EU KIDS Act?

I’m glad it goes wider than just an age ban. It is a very simplistic method and it hasn’t worked effectively in Australia, where they’ve tried it. Children and young people are very, very entrepreneurial about how they can work around the system.

But it also plays into the hands of the companies themselves because this is what they want: to put the responsibility back on the user and the parents.

I still have an issue with how these companies know the age of the individual. They know more about us than we know about ourselves, and that includes young people. There are concerns around the legal basis in Ireland for the ID cards. For example, we don’t have a national ID card, so that’s been challenged in the courts.

Children and young people are very, very entrepreneurial about how they can work around the system.

And also just that invasion of privacy for the entire population, having to give information to these platforms to prove that you’re not underage. I have huge concerns there.

But also it goes back to the start of what we’ve seen happen in the last number of years. Adults also need protection. So yes, children are very vulnerable in one sense. But why can’t we switch off the recommender system for everybody and go back to the way the social media platforms originally worked? Which was “you know, you found, you decided” what you wanted to see and what you looked for.

So I think there are some positives, but overall, it’s missing the bigger picture of how we take on these big tech companies for the benefit of all of society. We all have friends and relatives who’ve been radicalised through social media, and they’re not okay and they are older than 16.

How the European Union could protect not only just the kids in relation to the use of social media?

Digital literacy is important. We’re all susceptible to falling for disinformation, misinformation, scams, and now AI-generated content as well. I think that’s the bit that’s missing, it needs funding. We need to put the money behind that to enable it, and it has to be age appropriate as well.

We’re right to protect young people, but we also need to protect the older generation. And then there has to be an intersectional approach to it as well. We know the targeting of young men is very different to what young women are being targeted with.

We know that there are socioeconomic disparities as well. So even with this EU KIDS Act, that’s going to be an issue, unless we accept that an educated middle-class parent is going to be much more aware of this. And that the information is more accessible to them than to a single parent who’s struggling to do everything.

I don’t see that rounder picture of the funding that’s needed to do it, who’s paying for it. The tech companies should be providing the funding but not having anything to do with the education. But there’s also that intersectional piece: it’s not a one-size-fits-all, it’s not going to work and address the dangers that we see.

Why Ireland became such a hotspot for those tech companies and data centers in the EU?

I would say one word: tax scheme. It is what encouraged the companies to come here and set up. And then, in order to make them stay in Ireland, we had this data center policy. Which initially, like 15 years ago, was about the cloud. No one really thought what that meant.

And now we have more data centers per head of population than anyone else in the world. They account for 23 per cent of our electricity demand. It’s a model that successive governments have decided they are not going to shift away from or diversify from.

They couldn’t rule out that even if you didn’t want to see this content, it wouldn’t be pushed to you again through the recommender system.

That leaves us really exposed and compromised in terms of the enforcement of the regulations. There have been experts who’ve asked the Irish government to recuse themselves during the presidency on the tech files. And I think that that warrants looking at. Because certainly from the comments that our government have made, and we know they’ve met with lobby groups, they’ve agreed to meet with them with no minutes, no record of the meeting.

That doesn’t send out a message of full transparency or that we’re honest brokers in the negotiations. So that’s something that at an EU level people need to be very alive to, especially during the Irish presidency. But even after, because this KIDS Act won’t be finished in the Irish presidency. It’s important to be aware of who the member-state level will be trying to push back against the regulation quietly.

Recently in the national parliament, the platforms were in because of the horrific case involving the kids driving the wrong way on the motorway. And none of the companies could say how many videos they’d removed that were promoting this dangerous activity.

Secondly, they couldn’t rule out that even if you didn’t want to see this content, it wouldn’t be pushed to you again through the recommender system. And some of the young people who are seeing this and engaging in this activity are over the age to which the KIDS Act would apply. So the act is a welcome step, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

From the social point of view, the phenomenon of kids using the AI to chat is a new trend or can it be traced back in Ireland?

The NGO Spun Out released, a few months ago, really scary statistics about young people getting advice from the chatbots and how quickly the AI would escalate to suicidal ideation and giving advice on how to kill yourself.

And the use of AI for other social issues is critical. There was also the one we’ve been asking the minister for health to look into, around health advice. Regarding abortion and asking for an advice, they were directing people in one in four cases to anti-abortion information and dubious counseling services as well.

So I think it’s an area that absolutely we can’t allow to run away the way social media did. Of course, we need to get in there very early to deal with all of these issues.

In Ireland it’s more to do with just absolute desperation because there’s such a lack of resources, which is bizarre given how wealthy we are. On the other side, we’re so wealthy thanks to these companies and their corporation tax.

The use of AI by kids, and not only, I think has mostly to do with a lack of resources. The waiting lists for young people seeking mental health services are enormous. It’s probably out of desperation that young people are going there. And that’s partly why a lot of youth organisations are saying that you need to make sure the information they’re getting is appropriate, so not through AI chatbots.

But if you’re then going to exclude them, you shut down the sources of information. As the organisation that carried out the research is saying, young people need access to the internet and to social media to be able to find advice, whether around their sexuality or their mental health. How do you get that balance?

But I think in Ireland it’s more to do with just absolute desperation because there’s such a lack of resources, which is bizarre given how wealthy we are. On the other side, we’re so wealthy thanks to these companies and their corporation tax.

You joined the screening initiative of Molly Vs The Machines but you are not in any committee related to tech and its consequences inside the European Parliament. Why?

My background was primarily environmental. But in Dublin, these tech companies are surrounding us. The more you look into the industry, the more you become concerned.

I think during COVID we’ve seen how social media companies were beginning to polarise society and generate anger and a lot of hatred. In Ireland, we experience a lot of far-right rhetoric, and I think other European countries have seen similar trends, first against lockdowns and vaccinations but then moved to anti-migration and racist rhetoric.

I have huge concerns around the damage that these media companies are doing to social cohesion, to our communities, to how safe it is for people to be in the public eye. This affects people in organisations too, because there’s an anti-NGO and also anti-politician narrative on these social media platforms.

This is a huge, massive industry. Ireland is the host for most of these companies. And the damage that they’re doing to our society, our community, our democracy, and our planet. So it’s a combination of all of those, that’s how I came at it.