The Government has formally agreed to work actively with like-minded EU member states to explore options to introduce age restrictions on the use of social media, concentrating, in particular, on those under 16 years of age.
Ireland will now strongly advocate for a decision on the "digital age of majority" to be taken at EU level but will take action domestically if necessary.
Ministers have been discussing the Government's new 'Digital and AI Strategy'.
This plan will place a strong focus on online safety and it will look at restricting social media for under-16s through age verification.
However, there are warnings that this must be done with other EU states to avoid it being struck down by the courts.
It is understood that Ireland is aligned with France on this issue, with that country set to introduce legislation first while the age verification system is developed here.
This is just one of 90 measures in the new strategy which aims to make Ireland an international digital hub with strong regulatory safeguards.
There will be a focus too on ensuring there is adequate cyber security in place to protect public services.
The strategy will also emphasise the need to keep legislation under review to address certain AI technologies which act as tools to intimidate and harass.
The first step is a pilot run of an age verification tool which will see young people involved in a trial to assess how it will work in practice.
The strategy will also emphasise the need to keep legislation under review to address certain AI technologies which act as tools to intimidate and harass.
The Government will engage with European Commission to ensure the list of prohibited practices under Article 5 of the EU AI Act remains fit for purpose amid the growing power of AI.
Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary said the Government will have to "be careful" if the Public Services Card is to be used as part of the age verification method.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with David McCullagh, the minister said the Department of Communications has indicated that it will engage with his department, adding that the Public Service Card is predominantly designed for social protection services.
On the issue of restricting social media for under 16s, he said: "We're very early days on this yet, but let's not lose sight of why we're doing this. It's to protect our children from the worst excesses of social media.
"I think there's a general agreement that that needs to be done."
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'Lack of joined-up thinking' with Govt plan - Digital Rights Ireland
Digital Rights Ireland Chairperson TJ McIntyre has described the Government's age plans as worrying and represented a "lack of joined-up thinking".
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said there had been a lack of consultation on the matter, as well as no examination of it by the Oireachtas.
"This is something that has gone off on what is essentially the whim of the executive without any prior consultation. I would be very concerned that the whole thing is starting off rather half-cocked," he said.
Dr McIntyre, who is also an Assistant Professor at UCD School of Law, said age restrictions for under-16s would be very difficult to legislate for, particularly if a form of government identification would be required for social media access.
"The talk of doing this unilaterally is already, I think, very unrealistic. This is something that can be done, if at all, only at an EU level," he said.
"The difficulty with that is that the Data Protection Commission has already determined on two separate occasions that aspects of the Public Services Card scheme are illegal", adding that "there doesn't seem to have been any thought given to the actual practicalities of age verification in this context."
School principal says social media ban must go ahead over online bullying
The principal of St Aidan's Community School in Tallaght has said the the social media ban must go ahead due to the harm that online bullying can inflict.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Kevin Shortall said he is not a fan of the word ban but that he thinks we "certainly need to do something about it".
He said bullying and nasty comments online through social media does not just stop at age 16."It can go through to the family and adults can get involved and everything," he said.
Mr Shortall said it would be dangerous to say that children will find a "workaround" to the ban on social media and advised against the approach to "not do anything".
"We find in the school that when we attack or we approach something, we get 95% adherence and then we have 5% to deal with.
"It is the same with this. It will make a big difference to a lot of people and then we have a smaller number to address. If we don't do anything at all and if everybody is given free reign, that is when a problem arises," he said.
Mr Shortall said we legislate and restrict for everything in society "that minimises the harm".
He said that since his school have restricted phones, many students have said they love coming into school, saying that they can forget about their phone.
"We need to address this, to approach it as parents, teachers and society," he said.
