Academics at McGill and Toronto Universities are speaking up against the Liberal Party’s push to ban social media and AI for teens under 16, with university professors suggesting that better guidelines and education on the use of digital platforms are needed.
On Feb. 11, federal Liberals passed a non-binding resolution to set a minimum age requirement for teenagers creating social media accounts and using AI chatbots, to protect minors from harmful content and improve their mental health.
The Liberals’ resolution requires social media platforms to enforce age verification, eliminate harmful content, and prevent unsafe online interactions.
This comes following Australia’s decision in 2025 to enforce an age limit on social media.
Is the ban the best option?
Vincent Paquin, an assistant professor of psychology at McGill University, says young people should be exposed to social media instead of being banned from it.
He suggests that a complete ban will not prevent them from using social media, but will result in them using it in secret, making it more difficult for adults, parents, and teachers to intervene
when problems arise.
“It’s better to let young people be gradually exposed to the technologies and help them develop critical thinking and the necessary tools to have a safe engagement with the technologies,”
Paquin said.
Rather than a ban, Paquin says, tech giants such as TikTok and Meta need to change the design of the social media platforms to make users have a less addictive, more balanced
experience, letting users control what kinds of content they are exposed to.
However, he says, teens also face dangerous content on social media, such as cyberbullying, negative social comparisons, and difficulty controlling their usage.
Paquin also worries the act of scrolling through endless feeds, also called “doomscrolling,” can be problematic, since the algorithm that customizes the feed can present videos that provoke
anxiety and shock.
Pros and cons of social media
The Angus Reid Institute reported that 75 per cent of Canadians supported a full ban on social media use for teens under the age of 16.
However, 72 per cent of Canadians also said parents should regulate how children use social media — not the government.
According to the U.S. National Institute of Health (U.S. NIH), teenagers aged 12-15 who use social media more than three hours per day have twice the risk of having mental health problems, including depression and anxiety.
“A study conducted among 14-year-olds found that greater social media use predicted poor sleep, online harassment, poor body image, low self-esteem, and higher depressive symptom scores with a larger association for girls than boys,” the U.S. NIH said.
However, the benefits of social media, the health institute says, are that it can be a space for self-expression, developing online friendships, and finding social media-based mental health care.
“These relationships [on social media] can afford opportunities to have positive interactions with more diverse peer groups than are available to them offline and can provide important social support to youth.”
AI is also a matter of discussion
On top of social media, the Liberals’proposal also suggested banning AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Character.AI, Nomi, Replika, and Janitor AI.
“These technologies have been shown to limit desire for interaction with peers, pushed some young people into sexual conversations, and have even recommended suicide to vulnerable youth,” the Liberal Party’s resolution reads.
A 2025 survey by Mental Health Research Canada found that young adults were using AI nearly six times more than older adults for mental health support.
Research published by Cornell University suggests AI tends to reinforce users’ delusions.
Paquin worries that younger children and adolescents might depend on AI for mental health support, leading to the chatbots giving inappropriate responses.
“AI chatbots cannot replace a professional, a mental health professional, and cannot replace a human friendship or companionship,” Paquin said.
Tovi Grossman, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, agrees that children should be protected from risks related to AI chatbots.
However, Grossman says the Liberal Party’s ban can result in a lack of education on how to use AI for children and younger students.
Going into secondary education, Grossman says, AI might be a valuable learning tool.
According to the Pew Research Centre, more than half of teenagers aged 13 to 17 in the U.S. have used chatbots to search for information (57 per cent) or get help with schoolwork (54 per cent).
“About a quarter of all teens say chatbots have been extremely or very helpful for completing their schoolwork,” said the research institute.
Similar to movie ratings, Grossman says, a better approach is to educate children on how to use AI and introduce guardrails would be to use something similar to movie ratings.
“You don’t ban kids from watching movies, but you create rating systems.”
Paquin also agrees with Grossman.
“We can regulate technologies, and we should do it. But the question is, what’s the best way of doing it?”
