Canada introduces bill to ban social media for children under 16

The bill also aims to make AI chatbots safer by establishing a digital regulator to set safety standards.

The Canadian government has introduced a new digital safety bill that would ban social ⁠media for children under 16, with exemptions for platforms that meet certain safety standards.

The bill also aims to make AI chatbots safer by setting up a digital regulator ⁠to establish safety standards, a government official said.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 4US inflation hits new three-year high amid energy price surge
• list 2 of 4Bill Gates testifies in closed-door US House meeting over Epstein ties
• list 3 of 4‘I love the inflation’ US President Trump dismisses price concerns
• list 4 of 4Trump directs interim US intelligence chief Bill Pulte to downsize agency

The proposed “Digital Safety Act” makes Canada the latest in a wave of countries moving to crack down on social media platforms over concerns of harm to children.

“We have seen the very serious consequences that online harms can have. The safety of children cannot be an afterthought,” the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, Marc Miller, said in a statement.

Companies could face penalties of 3% of global revenue or up to C$10 million ($7.2 million), whichever is more, for failing to comply.

“Social media platforms and AI chatbots are designed to capture attention. They do not support healthy childhood development and have become a source of anxiety, isolation, depression and a range of other mental health challenges for many young Canadians,” Miller said.

“This legislation will provide a safer environment for young Canadians and empower them to connect in-person, build friendships, focus in school, and learn real-world skills so they can thrive.”

The bill’s introduction in Parliament comes weeks after families affected by one of the country’s worst mass shootings sued OpenAI, alleging that the company knew the killer was planning the attack after it banned the shooter from its platform in June last year over the user’s troubling conversations on ChatGPT, but did not warn police.

In its proposal for Bill C-34, the Canadian government said that apart from individual behaviour, online harms “are also shaped by how digital services are designed and operated. Features such as algorithmic recommendation systems, engagement-based feeds, autoplay, and endless scrolling can amplify harmful content and increase exposure, particularly for young users.”

AI has added new challenges, and digital services have “not kept pace with the scale, speed, and severity of online harms”, the government said.

Against that backdrop, the bill aims to set up new safety requirements for social media and AI chatbot services, requiring them to identify risks of harm on their platforms, adopt measures to address certain risks, implement safety-focused and age-appropriate design features, provide tools, such as blocking and flagging, and more.

It also wants platforms to remove content that includes the non-consensual sharing of intimate images within 24 hours of being flagged, according to local media reports.

In December, Australia became the world’s first country to ban social media for children under 16. ⁠A month after its law was introduced, social media companies collectively deactivated the accounts of nearly 5 ⁠million teenagers. Government officials in a technical briefing said it could take a year for the bill to pass, and 18 months to set up the digital regulator once it does.

France, Denmark and ⁠Poland are also considering tightening rules around social media use for children, while Greece in April announced it would ban access to young people under 15 from January 2027.