Audience attitudes to harmful and offensive media content are changing, according to new research from Coimisiún na Meán, IFCO and the Ombudsman for Children's Office published today.
Findings indicate that two-in-three adults (67%) did "not have concerns" about seeing or hearing potentially harmful or offensive content themselves.
However, parents report greater concern for younger children in particular, with a majority saying younger children’s exposure to potentially harmful or offensive content should be limited (52%).
The research on 'Audience Perspectives on Harmful and Offensive Media Content' was conducted by Coimisiún na Meán, the Irish Film Classification Office (IFCO), in collaboration, with the Ombudsman for Children’s Office.
It examines the attitudes of adults and children to content on television, radio, cinema, home entertainment and video-on-demand services.
While most adults are unconcerned about encountering potentially harmful or offensive media content, most parents report feeling 'very concerned’ about younger children (12 years and under) viewing/listening to content that includes dangerous or harmful behaviours (74%), sexual themes and nudity (74%), or violence (66%).
Parents are less concerned about younger children encountering strong language (44%).
The research shows that parents are less concerned generally about teenagers encountering potentially harmful or offensive content.
'Some adult content may be appropriate for older children', say some parents
Indeed, they consider that some adult content may be appropriate for older children, if it is consensual, its portrayal is healthy and realistic, and if it could help educate their children.
On media types, adults report greatest concern about harmful and offensive content on reality TV (49%) followed by drama/fiction (31%), factual programming (27%) and light entertainment (25%).
Speaking on the launch of the research, Coimisiún na Meán Broadcasting and Video-on-Demand Commissioner Aoife MacEvilly said the commission is "committed" to ensuring that audiences, especially children, can benefit from the "positive" aspects of media, while also "being protected from its potential harms".
Central to this ambition, she added, is ensuring that Irish audiences, especially children, can "engage safely with content that is age appropriate for them".
As part of this research, focus groups were held with young people aged eight to 17 and some of their observations are included in the publication.
Ombudsman for Children Dr Niall Muldoon said in the focus groups for younger audiences, the children were "very aware of the dangers of young people seeing harmful content".
They mentioned "how it might affect their mental health", or that younger children "might try to repeat some of the things they see in real life", Dr Muldoon said.
The report notes, for example, that younger participants distinguished between dangerous or harmful behaviours that are "realistic" and those that are less realistic/fictional, with the latter considered less harmful.
"When I’m watching a film and I see abusive stuff to other people, it won’t harm me as much as it would if I was watching YouTube. Because the thing I know about a film is that there are actors. They’re acting. They’re doing their job," a younger participant observed.
There was also discussion regarding ease of access to sexual content online.
"I feel like it’s way too easy to access," an older participant noted.
"It’s way too easy to access it, it’s only like one search and you see stuff that you shouldn’t be able to see," another older participant said.
Some participants referenced the fact that young people can come across content of a sexual nature, even without searching for it.
"It can just randomly pop up as well, you are not interested, it just randomly comes up," a participant stated.
The report notes that several participants spoke "at length" about their concerns that young people, particularly boys and young men, might develop unhealthy attitudes to, and expectations regarding, women and sex, as a result of misogynistic sexual content.
'Concerned about manosphere content', says participant
"The only thing that I’m really… concerned about, is manosphere content being pushed on young boys, because I feel like that does have an actual impact on me. I can notice… I would be able to pick out the boys in my year, who watches and who doesn’t," an older participant said.
In relation to age classifications, a younger participant said that "I’m sure there’s things that, like, people my age would just see and be like, oh, you know, nothing too major. But then a five-year-old might see it and they might get really scared. So, I feel like it’s important to have rules because different ages can handle different things".
One older participant noted that age classifications are helpful for people in identifying content that is "too childish"
"It would put me off, if something was PG or something, you wouldn’t really want to watch it."
"I also think parental restrictions should be definitely encouraged. Especially if you have a younger kid," a younger participant observed.
Another younger participant highlighted a slightly more "hands off" approach, whereby their parent stepped back but not out, and encouraged them to rely on their own judgement.
The parent said: "Say if I was watching a scary movie, my dad … comes down and sees it, he doesn’t really mind but like and he just says, ‘If it’s too scary you can knock it off but if you think it’s fine you can keep it on’."
The majority of older participants said their parents did not monitor or have a say in what they were watching with one older participant said "I don’t think they’ve really been able to control what we watch since we had phones".
Director of Film Classification at the Irish Film Classification Office (IFCO) Dr Ciarán Kissane said that this research has "already informed IFCO’s revised Classification Guidelines, issued in June 2025" and is an ongoing reference point for the classification team.
Among adults, television (86%) has emerged as the most likely source for accessing media content (86%), followed closely by video-on-demand (82%), then radio (66%) and cinema (63%).
