Richard Boyd Barrett Demands Arrests Over Child Pornography on X
Richard Boyd Barrett urged police to enter X and arrest those who run the platform, arguing that the peddling of sexualised images of children is already criminal under existing law. He accused the government of "soft peddling" enforcement and said police should be in X's European headquarters to make arrests.
Legal basis for arrests
Mr Boyd Barrett cited the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act and the Harassment and Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act, saying any fair reading of those laws shows the peddling of sexualised images of children are criminal offences. He argued the people who facilitate such child pornographic abusive imagery "should be under arrest, they should be under arrest."
Call for police action
He told the Taoiseach he had raised the issue on national radio and insisted the police should have gone into X and started arresting those who run X in their European headquarters. He acknowledged the law might be tweaked but said a reasonable reading of existing legislation already supports enforcement.
Pushback on political policing
An interlocutor responded that elected representatives cannot act as police or prosecutors and stressed the importance of an independent criminal justice system. The speaker warned against political arrests and suggested Boyd Barrett's rhetoric gave a glimpse of what might occur if he came to power, invoking "1984" imagery.
Exchange conclusion
The back-and-forth closed with the chairing speaker indicating the debate must end, saying "We'll have to conclude." The sequence ended without any on-the-record arrests or enforcement action being announced.
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Taoiseach, I said on national radio last Friday, I honestly do not understand why the police have not gone into X and started arresting the people who run X in their European headquarters because any fair reading of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act or for that matter the Harassment and Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act will show that the peddling of these sexualised images of children are criminal offences, they're criminal offences and the people who are facilitating these child pornographic abusive imagery should be under arrest, they should be under arrest. Now why is the government soft peddling on that? The law is there, if it needs to be tweaked sure but to be honest any reasonable reading of the existing legislation would say that X is guilty of a crime and there should be arrests made, the police should be in their headquarters. Deputy Boyd Barrett, in terms of, I mean again you can't become the police person, you can't become the prosecutor, you're a public representative. It's great stuff you know going and arrest people in headquarters here in Dublin who may not be responsible at all. I know the point, the police, yeah but not you, not government. You have to have an independent criminal justice system, just that's all I'm saying. But again you've given us a taste of what we could expect if you came to power, you'd be arresting people left, right and centre for different things. But that said, you know, 1984 and all that, you know what I mean? Sort of, you know, I think it kind of would be more. We'll have to conclude. We'll have to conclude.
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