Culture Minister Marc Miller speaks during a panel at the Liberal Party of Canada convention in Montreal on April 10.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
Canadian Identity Minister Marc Miller says Canada is unlikely to follow Britain’s example and include age checks to prevent children from accessing pornography websites in its forthcoming online harms bill.
Mr. Miller told The Globe and Mail that he thought a senator’s private member’s bill requiring pornography sites to check that their users are at least 18 years old, which recently cleared the Upper House, has merit.
But he said he is not persuaded that the federal government should follow the example of Britain, which in 2023 passed an online safety law requiring pornography sites to have rigorous age checks.
The minister told The Globe earlier this month that his department’s forthcoming online harms bill, which is expected to force online platforms to swiftly remove child sexual abuse material, and posts encouraging a child to self-harm, would not be the right vehicle for a new law requiring age checks for pornography sites.
In March, Mr. Miller reconvened a group of 11 experts to advise him on what should be in the forthcoming online harms bill. The specialists are also looking at practical considerations such as whether proposals would work, be enforceable or could have unintended consequences.
The government this month asked the experts to consider whether “age assurance requirements” to access pornographic content should be part of the bill.
In their consideration of the potential “design and scope” of the bill, the panel has been asked to consider whether to introduce a federal ban on children under age 16 using social media, and age restrictions for using AI chatbots.
Australia brought in a social media ban for under-16-year-olds last year. Britain is also considering introducing such a ban.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew announced on Saturday that his province will ban young people from using social media and AI chatbots.
The list of questions the federal government has asked its expert panel to consider, seen by The Globe and Mail, includes what the “age threshold” should be for a ban. “Should both regulated social media services and regulated chatbot services be subject to this requirement?”
It also asks, “Should a minimum age requirement for account creation form part of a more detailed legislated Duty to Protect Children for social media services and/or chatbot services?”
It asks them if “evidence continues to evolve” whether there should be mechanisms to review or revisit or adjust the age limit.
The experts have also been asked to warn the government if they spot any “unintended consequences” resulting from “age assurance requirements” including on youth who identify as LGBTQ or Indigenous and those living in rural communities.
It asks the experts to consider whether requiring “age-assurance for access to pornographic content” would align or depart from the private member’s bill, introduced by Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne, requiring that pornography sites take steps to check that users are at least 18 years old.
Opinion: Any new online harms bill must stick to protecting kids – not policing speech
Under Ms. Miville-Dechêne’s private member’s bill, adult sites that make porn available to a “young person” could face a fine up to $250,000 for the first offence, and $500,000 for a second or subsequent offence.
The bill passed the Senate earlier this month, but has yet to be discussed in the House of Commons where it would require an MP to sponsor it.
The government’s expert group has been asked to reflect on privacy issues which could arise from requiring age checks age to access pornography sites.
Alisson Lévesque, a spokesperson for Mr. Miller, said “we’re aware of Senator Miville-Dechêne’s bill to restrict minors’ access to pornographic material online. As our government identifies the best path forward, we have reconvened the expert advisory group to study new issues emerging from rapidly evolving technologies.”
Ms. Miville-Dechêne told The Globe earlier this month that she hoped the government’s online harms bill would include age verification for pornography sites.
Her bill leaves it up to the government to regulate how to verify or estimate age, to reflect developments in technology. It could include age-estimation technology, including by scanning a user’s face or hands.
It says age estimation or verification should be operated by a third-party organization, and it requires protections for privacy and personal information.
Parents and children rally for Parliament to retable online harms bill with focus on safety
Her bill has been criticized by Ethical Capital Partners, a Canada-based private equity firm that owns Aylo, one of the world’s largest operators of pornographic sites, whose outlets include Pornhub.
It has argued that technology is currently not sophisticated enough to accurately verify or estimate age.
Since July of 2025, Britain’s regulator enforcing that country’s Online Safety Act, required pornography sites to introduce “robust” age checks. That could include photo ID or credit card checks, or methods using age-estimation technology.
Solomon Friedman, a partner in Ethical Capital Partners, earlier this month told The Globe that his firm’s sites had seen an 80-per-cent drop in their traffic in Britain since the age-checking rules were introduced. In the same period, he said, there was an increase in searches online for pornography sites that did not comply with the age-checking rules, including some showing violent pornography.