The Online Health Taskforce was established in September 2024 to address the growing body of evidence showing a link between certain types of online activity and physical and mental health harms to children and young people. Its final report (https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/b192b694/Online_Health_Taskforce_Report_Final_Sept_2025.pdf) has now been published, alongside a report from the National Youth Assembly (NYA) (https://assets.gov.ie/static/documents/338dfc9c/The_National_Youth_Assembly_on_Youth_Online_Health_2025.pdf) and a report from the Institute of Public Health titled “Digital marketing of health-harming products to children in Ireland – Options for further protections” (https://instituteofpublichealth.org/reports/digital-marketing-oht-report). Together, these two reports underpinned and guided the task force towards the 10 recommendations across four proposed foundational principles:
- The Irish government must ensure that all of its actions and considerations afford children and young people their rights in the digital environment, equivalent to those in the physical world, including the right to health, privacy, safety, participation, freedom of expression, access to information and education, and protection from harm.
- All relevant Irish government strategies, legislative frameworks, funding allocations and delivery mechanisms must work coherently to ensure that all children and young people’s spaces – online and offline – provide opportunities for them to be healthy and safe, to grow, to learn, to thrive, to explore and achieve.
- The Irish government should lead international cooperation to promote online health, well-being and safety, including supporting the implementation of international and national regulations.
- A coordinated research strategy should be implemented that is proactive and responsive, to keep up with the fast pace of change in the digital environment, to promote health and well-being, and to support pre-emptive action to prevent future harm.
The Minister for Health has commented that she is taking the report to government, and her next step is to establish a group to oversee implementation of its recommendations.