Madam Speaker, I would like to, first, thank the hon. Member for this question. As I had already indicated in my reply PQ B/135 on 02 December 2025, there has been a sharp increase in online harms over recent years particularly affecting youths. With your permission, Madam Speaker, I would like to provide a very quick update on the numbers. Shall I?

Yes.

So, based on incidents reported by the public through the MAUCORS (Mauritian Cybercrime Online Reporting System) between January 26 to date, there have been 1727 cyber incidents which implies an average of 21 cases per day out of which 275 cases referred to cyber bullying and 523 to online harassment. What is important to note here is that 78 of those victims are aged between 11 and 18 and most of them are females. This reflects an increase compared to previous years and the numbers were given in my response of December 2025. Madam Speaker, there are 3 legislations that are directly concerned with this issue. It is the Children’s Act 2020, the Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Act 2021 and the ICT Act as well. The Children’s Act 2020 explicitly criminalises bullying including through digital means and provides for severe penalties where harm is caused to child under 18. The Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Act 2021 provides for offences relating to cyber bullying, online harassment, exploitation and other forms of cyber abuse, with stringent actions, penalties for all ages. However, crimes are still on the increase. This implies that there are fundamental challenges either with the law or with its implementation or with both. However, we are exploring all avenues. So, with regard to the law, it has not followed the technological evolution. For example, with AI coming into the digital landscape, it has worsened matters and, lately, generative AI has also been used in causing harm and bullying to people and to children as well mainly through fake profiles. While our legislations, the ICT Act and the Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Act, allow for anonymous accounts but it allows for those that are used without causing harm, but most of them have been created and they are tainted orange and they create harm and we all know who they are. However, there has to be a scientific way of establishing what are the identities of those people and we are working with the Government of India to actually seek help to establish a scientific way of identifying those perpetrators. Now, the element of AI is merely one dimension but amendments also need to be brought to the Children’s Act 2020 because there are new online harms that have come into the picture. Amendments will also need to consider, as we said, the new online harms but very importantly shifting the onus of the lawfulness of the contents to the platform providers and my Office is in touch with Attorney General’s Office in order to now engage the platform providers, those companies, and we can mention those companies because it is public knowledge, it is META and it is Google, as well. Now, with regard to the implementation dimension, the lack of verified identities is hindering the process of identifying the perpetrators of cybercrimes. Therefore, consideration is being given not only to amend existing legislations, as I mentioned, but also to forecast or foresee implementation challenges. The Internet amendments will address verification of identities and also authentication or authenticity of sensitive AI generated materials. We see a lot of AI videos that are causing harm. Today, we do not have the means to assess whether the AI generated objects are genuine or they are actually AI generated and there also need to be obligations on the author to specify that this content is AI generated. Now, these are some provisions that are being considered in the amendments that we are bringing to the law. As the hon. Prime Minister mentioned this morning, we are working with the Central Government of India to leverage their expertise in establishing the process and technologies as well that will help identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice. In May 2025, the Cabinet gave approval for the aforesaid amendments and we are already actively working with the State Office Law Office to finalise the draft at hand. Madam Speaker, I would like to mention, and I will finish my answer with this, that the initiative of my Ministry generated the Child Online Protection Scheme or measure which was implemented by the mobile network operators. So far, we have had a decent uptake and adoption of child online protection but our work is mainly on mobile phone, for accessing social media. The phase two is in preparation and it will be applicable to Wi-Fi and routers at home so that parents will have better control over the contents that are being accessed by their children. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you very much, hon. Minister. Yes?

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I have two supplementaries. Will the hon. Minister agree with me with the urgency of the matter and is he following international trends from modern and democratic countries around the world on this very issue, same as Australia and France in delaying access to social media for youth under a certain age?

Yes, hon. Minister?

Thank you, hon. Member for this supplementary and Madam Speaker, as a responsible Government, we care for our children and we also understand that they represent the future. I am also a father. So, we understand the challenges that parents are facing. We have also seen the types of incidents that our children have faced, in some cases there have been loss of lives as well. So, yes indeed, we are considering all options and we will very soon reach out to the Cabinet for a decision on the way forward. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Yes, second!

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Can the hon. Minister indicate whether consideration is being given to the deployment of technical filtering mechanisms, similar to those currently used in certain jurisdictions to combat child sexual abuse material in order to limit or block access to online content that has been formally reported and verified as cyberbullying, harassment or abusive material targeting individuals, particularly minors and young persons? Thank you.

Thank you, hon. Member. I believe that the measures that we need to apply do not have to be only technical. Why? Because a child can always have access to the parent’s phone. A child can always declare his or her age as being above 18 as compared to being below 16 or 13 because today, children below 13 are not actually accepted on social media platforms, on most of them but they are still doing it. Therefore, the measures, yes, on the one hand they need to be technical and we will not leave any stones unturned to consider the technical measures within the respect of the Constitution and we will also address measures such as sensitisation of parents in order to clean up the digital space. Thank you.

I am sorry, I did not get you. I should not get too involved but I would like to know more about the Constitution. I think nobody understood really. Which respect do you mean? Tell me, I do not want to tell you this…

It is the privacy of correspondents, Madam Speaker.

Yes?

Yes. So, when we talk about filtering, this implies that we will need to read the data ahead of the actual correspondent reading the data and reading the data between two correspondents compromises the privacy of that correspondence, and the Constitution guarantees the right to privacy of correspondence. So, whatever we will do, we will do within the respect of the Constitution.

Including for children?

Including for children.

Yes, okay.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. May I ask the hon. Minister, in order to combat fake profiles which bring with them all the associated evils that we know, is the Government prepared to consider first of all, mandatory ID verification for those who are 18 and above, and as well parental ID verification for those who are aged under 18 and if there will be an age limit for the use of social media in Mauritius like is being done in the EU and in all the developed countries in the world there is this mouvance?

Question has already been put, I think. Yes, part of that question has already been answered.

Yes, thank you hon. Member. Yes, in my response I did indicate that the lack of verified identities is hindering the process of bringing those people to justice. We will implement the verification of identities and parents should also assume their responsibilities so that they do not actually allow their children who are under a certain age, as per their own policies that they implement at home – because everybody has his or her own policies – but the Government will have its own set of policies as well which parents will need to implement.

Madam Speaker, just to clarify.

Okay.

For the sake of clarity, hon. Minister, when you say that we will be moving for identity verification, do we understand that the mainstream social medias like Facebook and others will take down all profiles that do not meet the identity verification criteria?

Well, I am not really sure what you are pointing at because on the one hand, you are stating that we should do it, on the other, you are raising a problem that could actually result out of this action.

I am not against it. I am telling you it should happen. We should take down all the unverified accounts.

Yes, the aim is for us to have profiles that are verified. So, in the process of implementing that, if it implies that all existing profiles will need to be verified and those that are fake profiles will need to be taken down, so be it.

Yes, okay.

Thank you so much. Can I ask the hon. Minister if he can provide the number of convictions and imprisonment terms secured, imposed against offenders in the last five years or so? Thank you.

Thank you, hon. Member. I would not have the numbers with me at the moment but I surely will table it for you.

Okay. Next one is hon. Beejan! NATIONAL FRAMEWORK – SPORTS FACILITIES INTEGRATION – JOINT ACTION PLAN

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