Jess Kelly

I'm still catching my breath.

If you heard the show last week, you'll know that we were in the US.

We broadcast it from Washington and Philadelphia with Ireland Gateway to Europe.

And it was a wild and wonderful week.

But many of you got in touch with me to say I was deeply unfair with my assessment of the U.S.

capital.

So I promise I will go back again one day and reassess my thoughts and feelings.

But this week, I want to start with news relating to U.S.

companies that directly impact us here at home.

On Thursday, executives from Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and Microsoft appeared before an Oireachtas committee to talk once again about online safety.

I watched the entire session and for the most part, there wasn't a whole lot that we haven't heard before.

However, one thing that did jump out at me was the focus on the addictive side of the platforms rather than just the content, which had previously been the case.

I did a bit of a cartoonish double take when I heard this question and answer between Sinn Féin's Clare Curran and TikTok's minor safety public policy lead, Richard Collard.

Yeah, that's TikTok's minor safety public policy lead, Richard Collard.

Now, if you've been following all of this as closely as I have over the last wee while, you'll know full well that these platforms are never going to come out and own up to the addictive nature of their design, as that is a portal to a whole lot of pain for them.

but I was struck by the number of 100 million pieces of content being uploaded every single day.

It was yet another reminder that policing the internet can, at times, feel like catching smoke.

So what did we learn and where are we going?

Alex Cooney of CyberSafe Kids is with me once again to talk this through.

Alex,