Our Washington correspondent, Jackie Fox, has been speaking to Michael McGrath, the EU commissioner from Ireland, about the possibility of limiting social media use for children.

The European Commission is now considering the report from the expert panel on, uh, child safety online.

We have that report, uh, just a week at this stage, and we intend to consider it across the summer and then come back after the summer break with a proposal.

And as you know, they have recommended a graduated, uh, approach, uh, with age-appropriate restrictions in terms of access to social media and also regulation of social media.

And I know that President von der Leyen has indicated that, uh, she finds that approach quite convincing.

Uh, I agree.

I think it is the most appropriate way forward, uh, but we haven't yet made any formal decision.

But how are you going to enforce something like this? Could we see fines for big tech as a deterrent?

That the European Commission is now considering the report from the expert panel on, uh, child safety online.

We have that report, uh, just a week at this stage, and we intend to consider it across the summer and then come back after the summer break with a proposal.

And as you know, they have recommended a graduated, uh, approach, uh, with age-appropriate restrictions in terms of access to social media and also regulation of social media.

And I know that President von der Leyen has indicated that, uh, she finds that approach quite convincing.

Uh, I agree.

I think it is the most appropriate way forward, uh, but we haven't yet made any formal decision.

Have you got any update on what the status is? Is it more uncertainty? Are you in the know?

Well, we are in ongoing contact with our counterparts here in the US in relation to the full implementation of, uh, the trade agreement that we entered into.

As the commissioner for democracy and rule of law, what is your reaction to this kind of scandal?

Well, clearly we don't comment on individual cases, but the policy of the European Commission, uh, towards corruption is very clear.

We have to have a zero tolerance policy across the European Union.

What is most important is that the national authorities, uh, in any given case are allowed to do their work, uh, without any interference, uh, that they follow the evidence, and they take the case to its appropriate endpoint.

Uh, we have recently reached agreement on a new anti-corruption directive in the European Union, uh, so that would be transposed in the next couple of years, which harmonizes, uh, the definition of corruption offenses, uh, and also harmonizes penalties.

Um, the reality is that corruption is insidious.

Uh, it takes from valuable public resources, and it fundamentally undermines public trust in institutions and in democracy itself.

Can you confirm this plan?

Explain to us what this is.

Sure, Ciara.

Well, I guess to put it all in context, we are approaching the first anniversary of the new European Commission coming into office.

And so across my portfolio in the early weeks and months, I started a number of new initiatives that are now coming to fruition so that we could, over the remaining four years of the mandate, implement the different measures in rule of law, democracy, justice reforms and across the whole area of consumer protection.

So happy to talk about any of them.

But yes, on democracy, we have published now a European Democracy Shield proposal alongside an EU strategy for civil society.

And fundamentally, it is about protecting the pillars that are the foundations of our democracy.

That would be my point.

Well, we're

in very close contact with the French authorities now.

We have at an EU level quite a powerful set of tools already, and there are ongoing actions against a number of the e-commerce platforms, including those that you mentioned.

So there are clear obligations under the Digital Services Act in relation to the dissemination of a legal product online.

And we're not going to tolerate that within the European Union.

The overall message is clear.

If you want to sell into the European market, and it's a very lucrative and a very good market for e-commerce platforms to sell into, you must respect EU consumer protection rules and indeed our product safety standards as well.

Is the Digital Services Act strong enough to help deal with e-commerce platforms? Is it adapted to dealing with those particular type of companies? The