{"id":824921,"date":"2026-07-25T09:01:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T09:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/824921\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T09:01:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T09:01:28","slug":"ottawas-social-media-ban-will-come-too-late-for-todays-kids-peter-menzies-in-the-hill-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/824921\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa\u2019s social media ban will come too late for today\u2019s kids: Peter Menzies in The Hill Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in The Hill Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By Peter Menzies, July 24, 2026<\/p>\n

Before you get too excited about Online Harms 3.0, consider that it\u2019s unlikely any child currently in school will directly benefit from it.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean they won\u2019t be more protected from the\u00a0addictions Big Tech prompts<\/a>, and the predation that lurks in the dark corners of the internet. They will.<\/p>\n

Expensive United States lawsuits<\/a>, legislation in several other countries, and generally widespread public concern is already forcing companies to up their game. Apple\u2019s recent announcement of a\u00a0smorgasbord of tools<\/a> for parents to use to manage their offspring\u2019s introduction to and management of the online world is just one example of the so-called web giants trying to transition and respond to public\u2014and, therefore, political\u2014concerns.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Safe Social Media Act<\/a> (Bill C-34) tabled on June 10 by Culture Minister Marc Miller is in fact the Liberal government\u2019s third kick at the can.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The first effort, in 2021, was a\u00a0flawed and clumsy piece of legislation<\/a> primarily focused on patrolling the internet for \u201chate speech.\u201d Panned by civil rights organizations, social media platform operators and free speech advocates, it died on the Order Paper when then-prime minister Justin Trudeau called the 2021 election.<\/p>\n

The second effort\u2014Bill C-63\u2014contained some truly\u00a0menacing hate speech provisions<\/a> via Criminal Code amendments, including the possibility of life sentences. It also contemplated expansion of \u201chate\u201d speech complaints to within the jurisdiction of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. It, in turn, would have had the power to impose fines of up to $20,000.<\/p>\n

It did, however,\u00a0wrap these ambitions<\/a> within the far more palatable concept of holding social media companies to a duty of care, a Digital Safety Commission to enforce compliance and a Digital Ombudsman. The government eventually split the bill to prioritize the child safety aspect, but, by that time, the Trudeau regime was crumbling. After Mark Carney won the Liberal Party leadership, he soon called an election and\u00a0Online Harms 2.0\u00a0slipped under the waves.<\/p>\n

The good news about the 3.0 version\u2014the\u00a0Safe Social Media Act\u2014is that it has dumped the hate speech amendments (Bill C-9 having covered that off<\/a>), and abandoned the menacing idea of turning the human rights commission into a social media hall monitor with bite. Most satisfying for parents, it has retained a focus on child safety in terms of sexual exploitation, terrorist recruitment, and other evils. Also, in addition to maintaining tech companies\u2019 duty of care, it will ban social media access for anyone under 16 years of age and restrict pornography to adults only.<\/p>\n

Most social media companies currently impose an age limit\u2014as best they can\u2014of 13 years, but they will certainly be expected to apply more vigorous and dependable enforcement methods. One important caveat, however, is that the legislation contemplates exempting certain companies from its direct oversight. Who, how, when, and why is yet to be determined, as are the specifics of any regulations. That responsibility will be left up to cabinet, by order-in-council, and a whole new bureaucracy: the Digital Safety Commission. Its job will be to develop the specific rules and guidelines by which Meta\u2014assuming it doesn\u2019t get a waiver\u2014and others must abide.<\/p>\n

Little wonder Bill C-34 has already been\u00a0dubbed by internet law expert Michael Geist<\/a> as \u201cThe Law To Be Named Later.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the ticklish particulars of how to manage the bill\u2019s aspirations (Miller\u2019s concerns involve social stability) are being left up to the Digital Safety Commissioner and her or his staff.<\/p>\n

So, first of all, the legislation has to pass and come into force. Then, at some point in 2027, the new commissioner will need to be hired. They, in turn, will have to establish structure, recruit\/hire staff, determine a budget, find office space, and get some specific directions via orders-in-council from the federal cabinet before launching a consultation process of some kind. Expect another year after that before appropriate regulations are defined and put into place, and then throw in the likelihood of two to three more years before legal challenges are heard, ruled upon, appealed, and finally settled. Then, expect that Ottawa will agree to an implementation period of at least a year.<\/p>\n

All of this means that if you are currently the parent of elementary school children, don\u2019t expect the Social Media Safety Act to be their guardian angel. The best-case scenario in the short term is that it will motivate helpful changes in social media\u2019s self-management.<\/p>\n

Oh, and as for your kids\u2019\u00a0obsession with video games<\/a>\u00a0and professional sports\u2019 vigorous efforts to instil within them a\u00a0debilitating gambling habit<\/a>, you\u2019re on your own. Neither of those are covered.<\/p>\n

At least not yet.<\/p>\n

Peter Menzies is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and a former vice-chair of the CRTC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article originally appeared in The Hill Times. By Peter Menzies, July 24, 2026 Before you get too…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-824921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824921","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=824921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}