Mad About Media Episode 4: Who Decides What’s Safe?

From film ratings and trailers to TikTok feeds and online harm, this episode looks at who decides what is safe to watch, what gets regulated and what still slips through.

In this episode, students look at censorship, classification, online safety and the challenge of protecting viewers and users in a world where anything can appear on a screen.

Guest: David Power from the Irish Film Classification Office: on how films are classified, why age ratings still matter, what makes a film difficult to rate and how trailers, games, violence, language, sex and harmful behaviour are assessed.

Guest: Stephanie Comey, Director of Media Literacy and User Education at Coimisiún na Meán: discusses online safety, social media regulation, harmful content, reporting tools, influencer ads, addictive design, media burnout and why being media literate is about more than spotting fake news.

Theme: Classification, Online Safety & Harm

Student challenge: Take the colour out of the feed. The students put their phones into black-and-white mode to see whether removing colour makes scrolling less rewarding, less addictive or just more depressing.

Listen if: you’ve ever wondered why films get age ratings but your phone can still show you anything.

In Near FM’s Mad About Media, students from FET College Dhúlaigh take on the big questions, interviewing journalists, academics, and experts about the forces shaping the media we consume every day and finding out how to navigate the world in 2026.

This series is co-funded by Ireland’s media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán and supported by your television licence fee.

Music credits: Demented Nightmare by Darren Curtis and Madness of Linda by Rafael Krux