New legislation outlawing porn for under-18s is to be debated in the Seanad this week.
A bill calling for strict age verification brought by Senator Ronan Mullen will get its second reading on Thursday.
The draft laws require porn sites and apps to ensure under-18s cannot access them – with penalties if they don’t comply.
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Mr Mullen said: "It is long past time to make strict age verification a legal obligation on pain of criminal sanction.
"There is widespread public concern about the proliferation of pornographic material freely available on the internet, and about the damage that this can do to children.
"Many children have unfettered access to the internet. It is long past time to make strict age verification a legal obligation on pain of criminal sanction."
A recent survey found one in four Irish six-year-olds have their own smartphone and almost half of 10-year-olds are allowed to use them unsupervised.
Irish charity CyberSafeKids has repeatedly raised concerns over the easy access to porn for minors who have a smart device.
In May a court in the Midlands heard a teenage schoolboy awaiting sentence for possessing hundreds of explicit child abuse images was aged nine when first exposed to "deviant viewing" online.
Mr Mullen said: "I invite people, especially but not exclusively concerned parents, to contact the Government and other parties and ask them to support this Bill."
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