A Fianna Fail Senator has said GAA stars like Diarmuid Connolly should refrain from working as Brand Ambassadors for betting companies.
Shane Cassells said “we have a wild west when it comes to online gambling” and said what GAA players do off the pitch is “equally as important” as on the field.
Mr Cassells said “harmful online content” needs to be tackled and this includes gambling adverts as well as pornography and online abuse.
He hit out at gambling companies that are targeting young people stating it “hooks people effectively like a drug addict.”
He said it was a “divisive scenario” that GAA stars such as six time All Ireland winner Diarmuid Connolly is a brand ambassador for a “major betting company.”
Boylesports signed up the Dublin GAA star in January after Connolly announced his retirement from intercounty football last year.
The Fianna Fáil Senator said Connolly was a “fine ambassador” for Irish sport but that all GAA stars should “absolutely” refrain from working with bookmakers.
Mr Cassells was speaking on Thursday as Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators have called for an end to fake trolling accounts on social media platforms ahead of tech giants such as Facebook coming before an Oireachtas Committee next week.
The Committee has commenced pre-legislative scrutiny of the online safety Bill, that will set up the Media Commission, which will potentially be one of “the most powerful regulators” in the State.
Fianna Fáil’s Malcolm Byrne said “self regulation” for these tech companies needs to end and they are calling for a strong Media Commission to make online safer for everyone.
Mr Byrne along with Fianna Fáil TDs Christopher O’Sullivan and Niamh Smyth believed people should be required to show proof of ID to set up any social media account.
They also want social media companies to speed up taking down damaging material.
Ms Smyth said a lot of female politicians and journalists get a “pile on” of abuse on social media and she said it has been “unhelpful” in encouraging women into public life.
She said there needs to be “repercussions” for tech giants when there is abuse and harmful content going up online.
She said she expects these companies will have proposals next week on how they plan to tackle the trolling.
Ms Smyth said she has had to deal with online abuse and said “it makes you question yourself and your work” and it does impact you “consider your position.”
While Malcolm Byrne said he has experienced a lot of homophobic abuse online and said: “You can have robust political debate and we’re all used to that but when it becomes deeply personalised, then it does have an impact and we all have hard necks, it doesn’t make it acceptable, but it’s often more for our family and friends around us.
“It impacts more on them, I know sometimes when family and friends read some of the stuff that’s read I get upset more for them than anything else.”
While Mr Cassells added the online abuse will make it harder for any political parties to recruit young people into politics.
