Ireland Moves to Ban Teen AI Companions as Brussels and Dublin Align on Child Safety Rules

Ireland is about to drop one of Europe's first national laws explicitly banning AI companion apps for minors — with a bill targeting AI "boyfriends and girlfriends" for under-16s heading to the Dáil this month. This isn't happening in isolation: the EU is simultaneously preparing its own proposal to ban social media and AI chatbots for under-15s across the bloc. For Ireland's tech sector, this matters on two levels. First, Ireland hosts the European headquarters of Meta, Google,...