Good morning. Ottawa will soon find out how hard it is to keep teenagers off social media \u2013 more on that below, along with an Air Canada pilot\u2019s forged credentials and Apotex\u2019s billion-dollar IPO. But first:<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s headlinesOpen this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Grade 11 student Nour Alzoubi scrolls on her phone in Charlottetown.The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n TechnologyThe waiting game<\/p>\n Canada has big plans to boot kids off social media. The federal government will introduce legislation today banning anyone under the age of 16<\/a> from accessing platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and X. (Although I\u2019m not convinced teens have much cause to use X.) It\u2019s part of a sweeping digital safety bill \u2013 long awaited in Ottawa \u2013 that would also require tech companies to rein in their AI chatbots<\/a> and suppress the spread of harmful material online.<\/p>\n There\u2019s been mounting pressure to table this kind of measure. In December, Australia imposed the world\u2019s first social media ban for children under 16, designed to protect them<\/a> from cyberbullies, toxic content and the addictive algorithms hijacking their brains. Lawmakers in France, Spain, Malaysia, Denmark and Turkey have all taken steps toward similar restrictions; Britain is expected to announce its own under-16 crackdown next week. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said a social media ban<\/a> is on the way in his province. Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra is looking into one, too.<\/p>\n But Ottawa\u2019s law differs in an important way from Australia and Europe\u2019s blanket bans: This safety bill offers Big Tech a carrot alongside its age-gating stick. If companies meet the harm-reduction standards laid out by a new digital regulator, then teenagers will be allowed onto their platforms again. <\/p>\n Psychologists hope these standards focus on social media features<\/a> that lead to compulsive use, like infinite scroll, constant notifications and video autoplay \u2013 the same features called out in a landmark court verdict earlier this year. In March, a California jury ordered Meta and YouTube to pay millions in damages<\/a> for deliberately designing products that are addictive to young people. But Meta, which is appealing the decision, hasn\u2019t overhauled its algorithm yet. And tech giants have good reason to believe that any social media ban won\u2019t actually keep teens off their sites.<\/p>\n A ban down under<\/p>\n Australia didn\u2019t want to hold kids or their parents responsible for circumventing the country\u2019s social media rules. Instead, it left Big Tech on the hook to police their own platforms, including through ID checks and AI-powered face scans that analyze bone structure and skin texture to guess someone\u2019s age. If companies failed to make reasonable efforts to block underage users, they\u2019d have to fork over roughly $50-million in fines.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Australia’s social media ban for children kicked in last December.STR\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n But six months in, it\u2019s fair to say the ban isn\u2019t going especially well. Even Australia\u2019s online safety czar says it: \u201cYou\u2019re effectively asking us to fence the ocean,\u201d Julie Inman Grant told<\/a> a Sydney newspaper last week, and the law is \u201cvery thin scaffolding.\u201d <\/p>\n According to the government\u2019s data, around 70 per cent of teens under 16 are still on social media. Two-thirds of them were never asked to go through any age verification, while some platforms gave kids dozens of attempts \u2013 each day! \u2013 to get around the test. TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram are now all under investigation for non-compliance, though no penalties have been issued so far. And Inman Grant seems less than confident that the world\u2019s biggest tech companies will be daunted by those fines. \u201cI don\u2019t have potent powers,\u201d she said, then went on to compare them to \u201csticking a pink parking ticket on a windshield.\u201d<\/p>\n Time out<\/p>\n I\u2019d really like to leave you on a more optimistic note, so let\u2019s take a quick trip over to Bradford, a large district in northern England (and the birthplace of artist David Hockney). Researchers there suspected that all-out social media bans were too blunt \u2013 and, ultimately, too toothless \u2013 to keep teenagers off the sites. But they wanted to see if reducing social media time could actually prove effective and improve mental health outcomes.<\/p>\n This fall, Bradford will pilot<\/a> the world\u2019s first-ever study on digital curfews. Four thousand students aged 12 to 15 agreed to take part in the six-week experiment: Half will get a bespoke smartphone app tracking their unencumbered social media use, while the rest will have their time limited to one hour a day between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. Significantly, the students will be randomized by their school year, meaning all the Grade 7s could be in the control group, for example, and all Grade 9s could be in the restricted group. That way, they\u2019re less likely to miss out on interactions with their friends.<\/p>\n The kids, understandably, are apprehensive. Social media is \u201csuch a big part of my life at the minute,\u201d 15-year-old Lucia told<\/a> the BBC. Still, they\u2019re already starting to anticipate a world beyond Snapchat. \u201cThe only way I talk to my friends outside of school is on my phone \u2013 I don\u2019t go and meet them,\u201d 14-year-old Aisha said. She thinks that\u2019s bound to change come September. \u201cHopefully it\u2019ll make me more relaxed, because I\u2019ll be able to go outside and not just be stuck at home.\u201d<\/p>\n The Shot\u2018The details read like a movie script.\u2019Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n At least the man was a licensed commercial pilot.Christinne Muschi\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n A former Air Canada pilot has been charged after flying tens of thousands of passengers on more than 900 flights with a forged captain\u2019s license \u2013 and getting away with it for 17 years. Read more about subterfuge here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The WrapWhat else we\u2019re following<\/p>\n At home: Ottawa will unveil a new task force<\/a> on preventative health care today, more than a year after a breast-cancer-screening controversy shut the old panel down. <\/p>\n Abroad: Somali referee Omar Artan won\u2019t officiate in the World Cup<\/a> this month after U.S. Customs and Border Protection denied him entry into the country.<\/p>\n Bill 21: The Supreme Court of Canada should issue its landmark ruling<\/a> on Quebec\u2019s secularism law by the end of November. <\/p>\n Business: Apotex, Canada\u2019s largest drug manufacturer, increased the size<\/a> of its initial public offering to $1.3-billion on the back of strong investor demand.<\/p>\n Beavers: Several dozen four-foot-tall statues of Canada\u2019s toothiest creature have taken over downtown Toronto<\/a> to welcome tourists to the World Cup.<\/p>\n