Just days after the BC Chamber of Commerce passed a modified call for the government to come up with stricter legislation for social media companies, based on a resolution from the Tumbler Ridge Chamber to ban kids under 16 from social media, the federal government has moved to ban kids under 16 from social media.
“We have seen the dramatic consequences that online harms can have in our communities,” says a release from the government. “The evidence is clear: online harms are intensifying. Children are especially at risks of online harm, from child sexual exploitation and cyberbullying to self-harm and mental health issues. Canadians, especially parents, are concerned about their children’s safety online, and they cannot face these challenges alone.”
Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, aims to limit harm before it happens. “While laws exist to respond once harm has happened, there is currently very little that requires online services to prevent harm in the first place. The Safe Social Media Act aims to change that by ensuring that social media services and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are responsible for addressing harm before it occurs.
“We have seen the very serious consequences that online harms can have,” says Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages who tabled the bill. “As technologies evolve, we must ensure our laws keep pace, because parents cannot face these challenges alone. The safety of children cannot be an afterthought. This legislation will introduce stronger responsibilities for online platforms to ensure their services are safe by design and include appropriate measures to keep children safe.”
The proposed legislation “will make online services more accountable and transparent by introducing new safety requirements for social media services and AI chatbot services.”
Around the world, there have been many cases of teens doing harm to themselves or to others based on online bullying or the advice of AI chatbots.
After the February 10 shooting, it was revealed that the shooter had used ChatGPT to find information around mass casualty events.
The new law will include an age restriction preventing children under the age of 16 from having accounts on social media services.
Notably, the law will also provide a path “for social media services to seek an exemption if they can demonstrate that they have put in place sufficient safeguards for children.
“The proposed legislation will create a legislative and regulatory framework through a new Digital Safety Act for social media services, including user-uploaded live streaming and adult content services, and for certain AI chatbot services.”
As part of that, all regulated services will have a duty to protect children. Social media services, including live streaming and user-uploaded adult content services, will have two additional duties:
The Duty to Act Responsibly will require services to assess and mitigate risks associated with exposure to seven categories of harmful content, apply labels to synthetically generated content, and provide clear and accessible ways for users to flag harmful content and block other users.
The Duty to Make Certain Content Inaccessible will require the rapid removal of content that sexually victimizes a child or re-victimizes a survivor; or intimate content communicated without consent, including deepfake sexual images.
AI chatbot services will also be subject to a Duty to Act Responsibly that is specifically tailored to their services. They will be required to:
- mitigate the risk of the chatbot communicating harmful content;
- be transparent in terms of their reporting thresholds in crisis situations, such as when a user intends to harm themselves or another person; and
- mitigate the risk that the chatbot will engage in harmful behaviour.
The president of the Canadian Medical Association, Dr Bolu Ogunyemi supports the bill. “It’s unacceptable for foreign-owned platforms to continue to get rich at the expense of our children’s mental health, privacy and personal safety,” says Ogunyemi. “This legislation makes Canada a global leader in digital safety and ensures Canadians, especially young people, are protected online and out of harm’s way.”
There is currently little accountability, transparency or consistency in terms of what platforms do to ensure the safety of their users, says the government. The new legislation will “include requirements that regulated services identify risks of harm on their platforms, adopt measures to address those risks, implement safety-focused design features, apply labels to synthetically generated content depending on the type of service, make user guidelines accessible, provide tools such as blocking and flagging, submit publicly disclosed digital safety plans, and comply with oversight from an independent regulator.”
“Under this legislation, services would also be required to reduce exposure to seven specific categories of harmful content, including content that sexually victimizes a child or re-victimizes a survivor, intimate content communicated without consent, content that induces a child to self-harm, content used to bully a child, content that foments hatred, content that incites violence, and terrorism or violent extremism content.”
In 2019, one in four youth aged 12 to 17 reported experiencing cyberbullying in the previous year. Cybervictimization is associated with multiple indicators of mental ill health, including suicidal ideation and attempt.
For instance, a 12-year-old Prince George boy committed suicide after online sexual extortion back in 2023.
The Prince George Chamber of Commerce co-wrote the BC Chamber resolution with Tumbler Ridge.
Police services across Canada reported 16,905 incidents of online child sexual exploitation in 2024, a 347 percent rise since 2014.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
