Canada to ban social media for children under 16

Canada will ban social media for children under 16, similar to a landmark Australian law.

Announced by the Canadian government on Wednesday, the proposed Safe Social Media Act (Bill C-34) aims to reduce harm to children online and hold social media and AI chatbot companies responsible for addressing such harm, citing child sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, self-harm, and the impact on mental health.

The proposed legislation would see the Canadian government ban users under the age of 16 from holding social media accounts. This also means age verification of internet services, as well as legally mandated security requirements for social networks such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, as well as companies with AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.

“We have seen the serious consequences that online harm can have. As technology advances, we must ensure that our laws keep pace, because parents cannot face these challenges alone,” reads a statement from Marc Miller, Canada’s Minister of Copyright and Culture, who introduced the bill.

“The safety of children will not be an afterthought. This law will introduce stronger obligations on social media to ensure that their services are safe by design and include appropriate measures to keep children safe.”

The bill comes months after Australia made history last year with its unprecedented Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act, which banned social media for children under the age of 16. Remarkably, Australian children have found ways around it. By 2026, Brazil, Austria, and Indonesia have followed suit, with the governments of the UK, France, Thailand, Spain, and many other countries monitoring their efforts.

Canada’s proposed Safe Social Media Act would introduce a new digital safety commission that would require online services to “identify, mitigate and address risks” on their platforms. They will also be required to take steps to “reduce children’s exposure to certain high-risk content and interactions,” including seven categories of “harmful content” characterized as “content that sexually abuses a child or abuses a survivor, intimate content is discussed without consent, content that encourages a child to harm themselves, content that is used for abuse, violence or hatred against a child. Violent extremism content.”

Social media companies will be required by law to adequately label AI-generated content, “be transparent about their reporting limits in critical situations,” and AI chat services will have to “minimize the risk of the chatbot interacting with harmful content” or its risk of “engagement.”[ing] in destructive behavior.”

Dr. Bolu Ogunyemi, president of the Canadian Medical Association, supported the bill in a press statement, saying, “Time is up. It is unacceptable that foreign-owned platforms continue to get rich at the expense of our children’s mental health, privacy and personal safety. This legislation makes Canada a global leader in digital security and ensures that Canadians, especially young people, are protected from the dangers of the Internet.”

The Canadian Center for Child Protection also publicly supported the bill. “For more than 20 years, the Canadian Center for Child Protection has reported a significant increase in child harm online, including child sexual abuse and exploitation,” executive director Lianna McDonald said in a statement. “The introduction of the Digital Safety Act is a historic day that could change the situation in this direction.”

However, Canada’s Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms noted that Bill C-63 “goes beyond targeting criminal behavior,” and would “undermine freedom of expression, due process, and the rule of law in Canada.”

“The Online Harms Act would dramatically expand the government’s power to censor, punish legitimate speech online, and authorize preemptive restrictions on individual liberties,” their statement read. “In doing so, it would depart from Canada’s long-standing commitment to freedom of expression and due process. Under Bill C-63, official speech may be subject to investigation, fines, or removal based on vague and arbitrary standards.

Notably, Canada’s Safe Social Media Act will be part of a larger legislative framework called the Digital Safety Act. The law would also cover “user-uploaded live streaming and adult content services.” This means minimum age restrictions not only on social media but also on “access to pornographic content on regulated services.”

The growing trend of age verification bills, which require individuals to prove their age in order to access not only adult content but social media sites, has grown exponentially over the past few years. Still, as Mashable’s Anna Iovine long ago reported, experts warn these bills pose threats to digital privacy and free speech.