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Ireland’s approach to protecting children online is coming under renewed scrutiny, as policymakers are warned that existing safeguards are struggling to keep up with how digital platforms actually work. At the heart of the concern is online gambling, which experts say continues to reach young audiences in ways that regulation has failed to anticipate.
A new report from the Institute of Public Health (IPH), informed by research from the Online Health Taskforce (OHT), suggests that children and teenagers are being exposed to a steady stream of marketing tied to products known to harm health. Gambling sits alongside alcohol, tobacco, vaping and unhealthy food in what the report describes as an increasingly commercialised digital space, where age limits exist in theory but are weak in practice.
The core problem, according to the analysis, is that regulation has not evolved at the same pace as digital advertising. Platforms driven by algorithms, behavioural data and influencer culture operate very differently from traditional media. Yet many of the rules designed to protect young people still rely on outdated assumptions about how advertising is delivered and how users engage with it.
A system built for a different internet
Children now encounter commercial messaging in ways that rarely look like advertising. Betting content can appear as entertainment, commentary, or lifestyle content, particularly on video platforms and social media. The report argues that this blurring of lines makes existing protections easy to sidestep, especially when enforcement depends heavily on voluntary industry standards.
Age restrictions, meanwhile, remain inconsistent. The research highlights how fragmented age-verification systems are routinely bypassed, allowing under-18s to access adult-only material with little difficulty. In this environment, exposure is not an exception but a structural feature of how platforms are designed.
Rather than proposing a single fix, the IPH outlines a broad framework for reform built around four areas. The first is political leadership, calling for a clearer national strategy that puts children’s health and digital rights at the centre of regulation, rather than treating them as secondary to commercial interests.
The second focuses on legislation and enforcement. The report is blunt in its assessment that self-regulation has not worked, particularly where profits depend on capturing attention and data. It recommends stronger legal powers to address data harvesting, behavioural targeting and profiling, especially when those practices involve children.
Age assurance is the third pillar, with the report urging the government to prioritise more reliable, privacy-respecting verification tools for restricted content. The final element centres on transparency and oversight, arguing that regulators need better tools to understand how often young people are exposed to harmful marketing and to intervene when platforms fall short.
Gambling exposure without gambling
Online gambling is singled out as an area where these weaknesses are most visible. The report warns that children are increasingly engaging with gambling-related content without ever placing a bet. This includes following tipsters or betting influencers, watching odds-driven sports content, encountering bonus offers, or interacting with gambling-style features inside games and apps.
Over time, the Taskforce suggests, this kind of exposure can normalise betting behaviour and frame gambling as a form of entertainment rather than a risky activity. By the time legal age limits apply, attitudes and habits may already be formed.
This warning comes as Ireland continues to implement its long-awaited Gambling Regulation framework, which took effect in 2025 and replaced legislation dating back centuries. While the reforms represent a major reset in how the sector is licensed and supervised, the report argues that regulation must now go further.
The concern is that focusing solely on operators and compliance misses how gambling content circulates across digital ecosystems. Algorithms, recommender systems and influencer marketing can push betting narratives to young users even when direct advertising is restricted.
As a result, the report calls for tighter limits on how gambling promotions are served, recommended or amplified online. Crucially, it argues that children’s data should not be used, even indirectly, to infer gambling interests or build future consumer profiles that could later be activated once age thresholds are crossed.
A broader political moment
The timing of the report is significant. Debate around gambling advertising has intensified in Ireland, with renewed political pressure for tougher restrictions and even blanket bans. Critics have pointed to the risks faced by problem gamblers and warned against allowing gambling promotion to become embedded across sport and digital media, as has happened elsewhere.
At the same time, the report looks beyond Ireland’s borders. It argues that youth protection in digital spaces is not a purely national issue, but one that requires coordinated European leadership. With Ireland set to take on the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2026, the government is being urged to play a more active role in shaping upcoming EU initiatives, including the Digital Fairness Act.
The underlying message is that responsibility cannot rest on young people to navigate platforms designed to maximise engagement. In an online environment built around data and attention, the report concludes, meaningful protection depends on shifting the burden back onto platforms, advertisers and regulators.
Whether Ireland takes that step now may determine not only how gambling is regulated, but how seriously the country treats the wider challenge of protecting children in the digital age.
Source: sbcnews.co.uk
