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Delegates at the B.C. Chamber of Commerce’s annual general meeting have rejected a call for government age limits on social media and generative AI chatbots.
The Tumbler Ridge and Prince George chambers made the joint resolution Tuesday as both communities have dealt with tragedies linked in some way to online platforms.
“I’m disappointed,” said Prince George Chamber CEO Neil Godbout. “The status quo is the Wild West in terms of young people’s access to these tools.”
In Tumbler Ridge, the 18-year-old perpetrator of February’s deadly mass shooting had been flagged multiple times by OpenAI for violent content violating the policies of ChatGPT.
In Prince George, the suicide of a 12-year-old boy in 2023 was linked to online sexual extortion, prompting Premier David Eby to promise reforms.
The call to restrict youth access to social media and AI under 16 years was one of three dozen resolutions on the agenda at this year’s B.C. Chamber annual general meeting and conference in Fort St. John, and drew emotional pleas and mixed opinions during debate.
“We need to keep these tools out of the hands of children,” said Trent Ernst, co-director of the Tumbler Ridge Chamber of Commerce.
David van Deventer, president of the Duncan Cowichan Chamber of Commerce, expressed concern about encouraging the federal government “to mandate how we raise our children.”
“I understand wanting to protect our children, but I personally have to bristle at the fact that the state will tell me what my child may or may not do,” said van Deventer. “If I don’t want my 15-year-old on social media, I will keep my 15-year-old off social media.”
Families of the victims in Tumbler Ridge are now suing OpenAI and its co-founder Sam Altman in California over the company’s failure to alert police to the shooter’s ChatGPT history before the deadly rampage.
Ernst says families in Florida are also suing after two people were killed in a mass shooting at Florida State University last April.
“In B.C., you need to be 19 to enter into a legal contract. You need to be 18 to vote. You need to be 18 to get married,” Ernst said.
“We wouldn’t even let them use chain tools like a chainsaw without proper training. Kids should also have training before we allow them access to technology that can teach them creative ways of killing their classmates.”
Shaena Furlong, president of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, raised concerns that an age limit could ban a child from platforms like LinkedIn or accessing YouTube tutorials at school.
Others worried age limits would impact B.C. companies that have already adopted AI in their operations, or that are looking to offer more digital services to strengthen data sovereignty and reduce reliance on U.S. social media companies.
“I have so much empathy for the people in Tumbler Ridge,” said Furlong. “I think it would be a bit of an overstep for us.”
The school in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., where six people were killed in a mass shooting in February, will be demolished and rebuilt in a new location.
Delegates endorsed a call for more provincial investments in digital literacy and mental health care, and for the federal government to require U.S. tech companies to report threats of violence, exploitation and criminal activity or face penalties.
Godbout said the resolution had been in the works well before the Tumbler Ridge shooting, modelled after Australia’s recent age restrictions. He says research on social media’s harm to kids is growing, and the impacts are starting to show up in the workplace.
“Teenagers are presenting at their first jobs with reduced attention capacity and ability to focus and have complex conversations, to deal with fear, performance feedback,” Godbout said. “That carries on into adulthood, even seeing this with early career professionals.”
Godbout said the City of Prince George plans to bring a similar resolution on age limits to the Union of B.C. Municipalities.
“Local governments are speaking up. The federal government has already shown some interest. We’ve seen the government of Manitoba saying they’re prepared to act,” he said.
“We really wanted to add the chamber’s network of voices to that. It’s not quite the message we wanted to send, but it is a message.”
The conference wraps up Wednesday following a speech from B.C. Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew says he wants to ban social media and artificial intelligence chatbots for youth. But would this plan keep youth healthier and safer? CBC reporter Bryce Hoye investigates.
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