{"id":728552,"date":"2026-06-10T23:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T23:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/728552\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T23:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T23:38:14","slug":"ottawa-unveils-plan-to-ban-social-media-for-youth-but-not-ai-chatbots-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/728552\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa unveils plan to ban social media for youth \u2014 but not AI chatbots – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

The federal government introduced online harms legislation Wednesday that would require social media<\/a> companies to restrict children under 16 years old from their platforms, but will not force AI chatbot platforms to do the same.<\/p>\n

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The Safe Social Media Act aims to create a \u201cduty to protect children\u201d for all online platforms that will require social media and AI chatbot platforms to incorporate age-appropriate designs, including content warning labels, safe search settings for children, and measures to reduce addictive behaviours like endless scrolling.<\/p>\n

Platforms will also have a \u201cduty to act responsibly\u201d that aims to mitigate the risk of chatbots communicating harmful content and behaviour, while requiring AI companies to implement crisis intervention protocols when a user expresses a desire to commit violence or self-harm.<\/p>\n

Social media companies, meanwhile, will have to label bot-driven harmful content and \u201cdeepfakes,\u201d or synthetic content.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re failing our children. Enough is enough,\u201d Culture Minister Marc Miller said Wednesday after tabling the bill in the House of Commons.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur parents cannot face these challenges alone, and the safety of children can\u2019t be an afterthought. We need basic protections in place so every child in this country can be safe on platforms they use every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Social media companies will also be required under the legislation to remove any non-consensual intimate content, and any content that sexually victimizes a child or re-victimizes a survivor, from their platforms.<\/p>\n

A digital safety commission will be created to administer and enforce the legislation, which Miller said should be up and running in 18 months.<\/p>\n

Canadians will be able to submit complaints about harmful content to the commission if the companies themselves don\u2019t remove the content first, and reported content must be removed within 24 hours.<\/p>\n

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Companies will be subject to a maximum fine of $10 million or three per cent of their gross global revenue if they violate the regulations set out in the bill.<\/p>\n

Miller said he was confident that companies would comply with the legislation and work with the new digital safety commission once it\u2019s in place.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCanada to ban social media for kids under 16\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tHow to enforce a social media ban?\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The youth social media ban, which was first reported by Global News this week<\/a>, will put the onus on social media companies to prevent users under 16 from holding an account. Platforms focused on sharing pornographic content will also be subject to the age restriction requirement.<\/p>\n

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Companies can seek an exemption if they prove to have implemented \u201csufficient safeguards\u201d for children, provided those platforms are not already centred on adult content.<\/p>\n

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The legislation does not specify what measures social media companies would be required to use to verify users\u2019 ages and enforce the restriction.<\/p>\n

Privacy advocates have expressed concern that companies could end up collecting data ranging from government-issued IDs to monitoring users\u2019 online behaviour to determine ages.<\/p>\n

Miller said companies would be required to protect Canadians\u2019 privacy but wouldn\u2019t say how, and wouldn\u2019t provide examples on how the government expects it to be implemented.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a back and forth with platforms as to what protects people\u2019s privacy and what is adequate and sufficient in the circumstances. That is important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the commission evolves, there will be a back and forth as to what the adequacy and sufficiency of those tools are to make sure that the law is being respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked why the legislation doesn\u2019t include a similar age restriction for AI chatbots \u2014 particularly after the teenaged mass shooter in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., had been flagged for their behaviour on ChatGPT \u2014 Miller said it was too soon for such a move.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is very much an evolving playing field,\u201d he said, adding more study was needed versus the \u201cdecades\u201d of research showing the harms posed by social media to youth.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAdmittedly, (AI chatbots) play a function and a role that can be very damaging towards kids, but can also play an important function in the educational system. \u2026 We\u2019re going to have to keep a close eye on it, but it did not feel appropriate to impose a minimum age restriction at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The minister added further consultation and study will be required to possibly expand the legislation to cover private messaging, chatting and gaming platforms like Discord, where harmful content can often be shared with youth.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tResearchers raise concerns around social media bans\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tAdvocates say measures desperately needed\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Australia last year became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, prompting Canada and many other countries to explore the idea. Similar laws have been or are due to be passed in Malaysia, Brazil, France and other nations.<\/p>\n

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Advocates for youth mental health and addiction say further protections for children online are desperately needed, and that an age restriction is just one tool among many that should be pursued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must safeguard the very precious and uniquely vulnerable developmental window that is childhood and adolescence,\u201d said Charlotte Moore Hepburn, a pediatrician and director of the Child Health Policy Accelerator at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada needs this comprehensive framework that establishes clear responsibilities for platforms to act safely and responsibly, in both the building and operating of the products they provide.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection both applauded the bill in statements Wednesday, citing growing research and warnings about the health impacts of extended screen time<\/a> and social media addiction.<\/p>\n

Experts have told Global News that parents and educators should be modelling healthy online behaviour for children, and that education is needed to prepare youth for the digital world.<\/p>\n

Miller said that responsibility extends to both parents and provinces and territories, many of which are pursuing their own social media policies for young people.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is stuff we\u2019ll have to do in partnership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is key to making sure that kids have a safer experience in this country, in their online experiences, and actually get out and play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The federal government introduced online harms legislation Wednesday that would require social media companies to restrict children under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,50339,276,277,49,48,183429,714,1942,64,61],"class_list":["post-728552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-ai-chatbots","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-online-harms-bill","tag-politics","tag-social-media","tag-tech","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}