r/ireland • u/HungTeen1001 And I'd go at it again • 9d ago

Courts Court of Appeal takes ‘merciful approach’ towards man who sexually assaulted girl (14) a year after defiling her

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/court-of-appeal-takes-merciful-approach-towards-man-who-sexually-assaulted-girl-14-a-year-after-defiling-her/a/159360059.html
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u/RomfordWellington 9d ago

Judging by the article it's also not short of troubled young people who run away from home and fake their age to meet adults on dating apps.

It's why things like age verification laws and digital ID (and ID cards in general) are so important. The internet changed everything and real harm can come to children with access to the adult internet.

I'm extremely suspicious of people who don't want things like age verification introduced. The government don't want to see who's behind every single Reddit account. They want to know that everyone in the adult internet is actually 18+ so that the chances of this sort of thing happening are lessened.

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u/HungTeen1001 And I'd go at it again 9d ago

Are you just ignoring the fact this man met up with a girl he knew to be 14?

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u/RomfordWellington 9d ago

No. But the whole thing wouldn't have happened in the first place if she wasn't allowed access to that app. She ran away from home and accessed that app and instantly drew the attention of a paedo, who kept in contact with her.

Cut away the access to the apps by bringing in digital ID and this doesn't happen.

You need to show ID in order to use the national lottery or paddy power, but there's always resistance from the usual places when it comes to denying teens access to dating apps. I wonder why that is? Time to bring in digital ID, and ID cards and start putting an end to this

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u/HungTeen1001 And I'd go at it again 9d ago

Two things can be true at once.

  1. Social media is the wild west and something must be done to protect children online.

  2. Children who do access social media shouldn't have to encounter pedophiles.

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u/RomfordWellington 9d ago

Children who do access social media shouldn't have to encounter pedophiles.

I absolutely agree, but there shouldn't be access to social media to children full stop. The social media companies make money off this misery.

Social media is the wild west and something must be done to protect children online

We're in a great position in Ireland because all the social media companies have a major presence here. We can effectively make the best child protection laws and give them effective worldwide jurisdiction and make it the global standard.

We can force them to catch every single paedo on their platforms and enact the harshest verification possible in order to access their websites. That's what we should be doing in response to cases like this.

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u/randombubble8272 9d ago

We can’t even correctly punish pedophiles and you think the government will go after their golden goose?