Australia has enacted a ban on social media for children under 16, while other countries are working on similar restrictions.Hollie Adams/Reuters
Ottawa is preparing to propose a ban on social media for children under 16 as part of a comprehensive digital safety bill to be introduced Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the proposal.
A new digital regulator, to be created by the bill, would establish safety standards, the source said. Platforms that meet those standards may be permitted to allow teenagers back as users.
The Globe and Mail is not naming the source because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the proposed legislation.
Many parents and advocates have called for such a ban, citing various concerns about social media, from exposure to harmful content to the addictive effects of continuous scrolling. But critics of the concept warn it could be ineffective and easily circumvented, and may introduce additional privacy issues.
The long-awaited bill, which follows previous failed attempts by the Liberals to introduce online harms legislation, is also expected to require companies to mitigate harmful content online.
This would include creating mechanisms to address harms caused by artificial-intelligence chatbots. Advocates and families have expressed concern that chatbots programmed to behave like companions have coached some children on suicide and how to mask eating disorders.
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As with other bills, regulations that would be established after the legislation’s passage are expected to be a key mechanism in putting the changes into effect.
The bill is also expected to revive some measures from previous versions that did not survive the legislative process. These include requirements to swiftly remove child-sexual-abuse material and reduce exposure to content encouraging children to harm themselves.
The digital regulator established by the bill would set standards for social-media platforms in order to mitigate harms to children, the source said. Companies that have taken steps to meet such standards could apply to have children under 16 allowed back on their platforms if they have made the required improvements.
The bill, to be shepherded through the Commons by Canadian Identity Minister Marc Miller, is also expected to require transparency from artificial-intelligence companies on their thresholds for contacting police when a user has indicated they intend to harm themselves or someone else.
The February mass school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., led to AI Minister Evan Solomon summoning executives of ChatGPT maker OpenAI to Ottawa. It had emerged that the shooter’s chatbot conversations had been flagged to the company because they discussed scenarios involving gun violence, but ultimately this was not reported to police.
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Tech giants Google, Meta and TikTok did not comment on the proposals.
News of a forthcoming ban on social media for under-16s was welcomed by parents who have advocated for action to tackle harms online.
Jenny Perez, founder of Unplugged Canada, a grassroots movement raising awareness about the impact of technology on children, said a government-imposed social-media ban for children under 16 would be welcomed. Parents concerned about online addiction and exposure to strangers would be able to tell their teens “16 is the law,” she said.
“Childhood is so short and they should be enjoying their time, and not hooked to their devices,” she said.
The social-media ban for children mirrors action in Australia introduced last year. But research shows many children there have evaded the restrictions and are still accessing social-media platforms.
Australian academic Amanda Third, who advised her government on its social-media ban, spoke Monday in Ottawa at an event held by the non-profit think tank Canada 2020.
“Too many children face risks of harm online,” said Prof. Third, co-director of the young and resilient research centre at Australia’s Western Sydney University. “Platforms have not done enough to date, and stronger regulation is indeed essential.”
But she also told attendees, “The idea of banning children from social media is incredibly seductive, but whether bans actually make children safer is genuinely an open question.”
She said children in Australia were finding ways to get around the ban by migrating to platforms not covered by it and trying to fool age-verification technology, including by posing for cameras with double chins to look older.
Rachel Bendayan, parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, speaking at the Canada 2020 event, said the forthcoming bill would be called the Digital Safety Act. She declined to comment on its content, but said, “It is going to be big.”
“Canada has the opportunity now to learn from some of the mistakes that other countries may have made,” she said.
Taylor Owen, founding director of McGill University’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, told the event that the widespread support for such a “draconian” social-media ban is partly due to companies’ failure to design products that are sufficiently safe, and governments’ failure to build the right regulatory response.
He said creating an effective regulator was a way to “effectively incentivize tech companies to do the right thing and keep kids safe.”
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Last month, G7 digital and tech ministers agreed on a common set of principles in an attempt to establish safer and more secure digital spaces for minors.
The group of ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain, the United States and the European Union agreed to prioritize measures such as robust age verification.
Britain introduced an Online Safety Act in 2023, requiring platforms to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is reported to be poised to announce a ban on social media for children imminently.
Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, said introducing age verification for social media is fraught with practical difficulties and could require age checks for all users. He said age estimation, which could involve taking photos of a user’s face or hand, is often inaccurate and may be biased against racialized groups, and requiring all social-media users to upload government-issued identification could raise privacy issues.
“Once you establish a requirement that your service is not available to people based on age, you have got to establish the full infrastructure to do that,” he said.
Rebecca Davidson, chief program officer for UNICEF Canada, said, “Until we see the final bill, this appears to be a step in the right direction for protecting children from online harms.”