The digital age of consent to officially be lowered to 13-years-old

It will be put into legislation in May.

The digital age of consent will be lowered from 16 to 13-years-old later this year. Beforehand, a child had to be 16-years-old in order to sign up to a website without their parents permission, however, now 13-year-olds will have the right to sign up to any website they want without your consent. According to The Irish Times, The Children's Rights Alliance recommended setting the digital age of consent to "the lowest possible age" last year, so it will subsequently come into effect on May 25. The move has been backed by Ian Power, the president of the National Youth Council of Ireland, with him commenting that it is “already official policy in the US." He said: "It is true that parents and guardians have a significant role to play: the ideal will always be that children’s rights and parental responsibilities go hand-in-hand." "Yet it is no great difficulty to imagine a scenario in which a young person’s rights are directly harmed by an abusive or neglectful parent. "In such cases, the ability to access online services in confidence is an incomparable tool for securing help and support," he added.