B.C.’s attorney general is throwing her support behind a ban on social media for children, saying the addictive qualities of some algorithms and platforms are harming youth.

Niki Sharma said she emerged from recent meetings in Ottawa encouraged that federal ministers will act on the issue, given a growing body of evidence of mental health harms, depression and addiction facing young people.

British Columbia lacks the power alone to regulate large tech companies that operate social media and AI platforms, said Sharma.

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But she said the province supports Australia’s attempt to ban children under the age of 16 from accessing certain sites and services — though, the exact age of 16 is up for debate, she added.

“I think that there’s going to be experts that’ll weigh in on when that age is, Australia set it at 16, and since they went first, we have an ability to learn from what that exact age limit might look like,” said Sharma.

The comments come after a new Angus Reid poll this week indicated 75 per cent of people surveyed in Canada agree with a ban for children under 16, with only 18 per cent opposed.

RELATED: Most Canadians support social media ban for kids under 16: poll

But the survey results get a bit more sticky when people were asked about platforms, with support falling below half for banning YouTube, a popular site for children’s videos. Australia has nonetheless included YouTube in its restrictions.

“What I think it says is that parents are crying out for there to be some government intervention related to this,” said Sharma.

“There’s so many debates in households, I can guarantee you, across B.C. every day about restricting their kids’ use of these very addictive platforms.”

The United Kingdom is also conducting a pilot project on age limited access to social media.

Major tech companies are already facing significant criticism for online harms. 

A Los Angeles jury awarded a woman $6 million in damages recently for what she said was addiction and depression caused on social media as a teenager. The companies, including Meta and SnapChat, said they would appeal.

Sharma was in Ottawa on March 25 and 26, meeting with federal Attorney General Sean Fraser and AI Minister Evan Solomon, amongst others. 

Sharma said she wanted to advance B.C.’s position that major companies cannot be trusted with self-regulation, in the wake of the Tumbler Ridge shooting earlier this year in which the shooter attempted to garner assistance from OpenAI’s online ChatGPT platform.