The Dáil has heard a call for so-called "strangulation porn" to be banned.
Sinn Féin TD Máire Devine said tackling violence against women required a complete shift of culture and mindset.
She said research recently published indicated that young people are presenting at accident and emergency units with strokes, seizures and brain injuries due to acts seen in extreme strangulation porn.
"It is free, it is heavily promoted and is easily accessible online by anybody with a connected device.
"There is no truly safe way to strangle somebody. Videos on how to 'breath play' safely - how innocuous that sounds - are being normalised, so we need hard hitting messages to reach our men and boys who start accessing porn by the age of 11."
The Dáil was hearing statements on domestic, sexual and gender based violence with survivors in attendance in the public gallery.
Ms Devine said there was reason to be alarmed with a fivefold increase in a single decade of strangulation in sex and that it has gone rapidly from niche to mainstream because pornography is normalising it as part of sex.
"Such horrific depictions of extreme aggression effectively become our people's sex education ... Tragically easy access to violent porn is grooming our boys into becoming unwitting sexual perpetrators.
"Girls curious about sex believe that strangulation is a part of intimacy to which they must submit."
She said it should be shown that society will not tolerate such a practice.
Concerns about behavioural influences
Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan said he would be concerned if people's sexual behaviour was being moulded by "weird" pornography.
He said he was not sure that legislation or criminalisation was the response.
But he added that girls and women must be informed that things being suggested to them, that men and boys were extracting from online activity was not something that is normal.
Labour TD Rob O'Donoghue said the country is facing an epidemic of gender based violence.
He called for an urgent well-funded intervention across every level from "Housing and Justice to Education and Social Protection."
He said victims of domestic violence should be recognised as a priority housing category as many women who exit refuges, then go to homeless hubs.
Fine Gael TD Shane Moynihan said there was a domestic violence pandemic revealed when Covid restrictions were lifted because many women were locked in homes with people who were threatening them.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said violent pornography was altering perceptions of sex and understandings of healthy relationships and was leading to physical and mental health problems.
He said he had introduced Bill to ban the provision of hardcore pornography to young children but nothing had happened on the Government side.
Proposals for domestic violence register outlined
The Minister for Justice has outlined how the proposed domestic violence register will work.
During statements on Domestic Violence in the Dáil, Minister Jim O'Callaghan said the proposed register would allow the naming of any person who is convicted on indictment of specified offences, including murder, manslaughter, or serious assault, against an intimate partner or former intimate partner, in a court judgement outlining the sentence imposed.
The Minister said the judgement would be published under a domestic violence register of judgments on the Court Service website and that the sentencing Court would retain discretion on whether such a judgment should be published.
He said this would be "an important safeguard" for the victim because their consent will also be required before such information is published and available to the wider public.
"This, it is hoped will act not only to provide information to intimate partners of those individuals who could pose a risk to their partners safety, as was the case with the shocking and tragic death of Jennie Poole; it should also act as a deterrent to individuals from carrying out such crimes in the future. Justice is required to be administered in public," he said.
Following what he described as "extensive engagement" with officials the Department of Justice, Deputy Paul McAuliffe and Senator Fiona O'Loughlin, the Attorney General’s Office and Mr Jason Poole, the brother of Jennie Poole - who he said was instrumental in the proposal - he expressed hope it would be known as "Jennie’s Law".
In 2021, Jennifer Poole, a 24-year-old mother of two, was murdered by her former partner, Gavin Murphy who had a history of abusive behaviour, including an assault on another partner.
Her family have campaigned for the creation of a domestic violence registrar to be established.
He added that funding has been secured for 80 additional refuge spaces with a commitment to provide 280 safe spaces by 2026.
"We will see for the first time in Ireland, a network of safe accommodation as required under the Istanbul convention which will include both refuges and safe houses," he said.
