Canada bans teenagers from using social media, joining the likes of Australia, Indonesia, and Malaysia in this regard. The Safe Social Media Act (Bill C-34), introduced by Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, bans those under the age of 16 from having a social media account. The motive here is to reduce online harms to children. It also introduces new regulatory expectations for social media platforms, like TikTok, Instagram, and others, and AI platforms.
Canada introduces bill to ban social media access for users under 16
Under the legislation, social media services must make their services safer for children. To that extent, they’ll need to remove deepfakes and content that sexualizes children or victimizes a survivor. They also need to add things like labels for AI content, easy ways to report harmful posts/material, and tools to block users to prevent further exposure to harmful content.
The bill won’t age-restrict AI chatbots. Minister Miller said that chatbots haven’t been studied like social media and they apparently don’t have the same social role. Still, the Safe Social Media Act also mentions “AI chatbot services.” The bill requires AI platforms to reduce chatbots’ risk of sharing harmful content or behaving in a harmful way. They also need to have emergency measures in place for dealing with a crisis.
AI chatbots won’t be age-restricted
Additionally, the new Digital Safety Commission of Canada will decide what extra protections platforms must offer beyond the 16-year-old age, according to Miller. The commission itself was created under a separate Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act. It will enforce regulations and can also grant exemptions if it finds a platform has “sufficient safeguards” for children.
This comes months after Australia implemented a social media ban for children under 16. The law requires platforms to deactivate accounts or face significant fines. Again, the law aims to protect young people from online harm and addictive harmful algorithms. Countries like Brazil and Indonesia also took similar steps to strengthen online protections for children.
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