The federal government is moving to restrict young Canadians’ access to social media unless those companies can show they’ve made their platforms safe. Culture Minister Marc Miller introduced his long-awaited online harms bill in the House of Commons on Wednesday, which also puts in some controls around artificial intelligence chatbots.”We’re failing our children. Enough is enough,” Miller said. “We need basic protection in place so every child in this country can be safe on platforms they use every day.”Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, would force social media services — defined as traditional social media platforms, live-streaming services and adult content services focused on user-shared content — to restrict accounts for children under 16 years old. WATCH | Miller says new body will give the law ‘teeth’:Proposed digital safety commission would ‘give some teeth’ to social media ban, Miller saysWhen asked about the potential for kids to circumvent the government’s proposed social media restrictions for young Canadians, Culture Minister Marc Miller said ‘that is why it was so key to have a commission able to interact with industry and able to give some teeth to this law so we just didn’t hope and pray that this would be enforced.’However, services could seek an exemption if they implement what officials briefing reporters called adequate safeguards to protect children. The exemption wouldn’t apply to platforms offering adult content services.The exemption will be based on criteria to be determined later through regulations, said officials. It remains unclear when the ban would come into effect and how long it would take for exemptions to be granted. Officials estimate it could take 18 months to set up the regulator after the bill becomes law.They did say the under-16 ban could be set up after regulations are issued but before the watchdog is fully up and running, raising questions about the rollout.The bill doesn’t lay out how the platforms will need to verify users are not younger than 16.Miller told reporters there will “be a back and forth with platforms as to what protects people’s privacy and what is adequate and sufficient in the circumstances.”Chatbots must respond to violent ideationThe bill, which has to be passed by Parliament before becoming law, also sets out criteria for AI chatbots, public-facing services that can mimic human relationships, including the obligation to reduce the risk of harmful content being generated by their services.AI chatbots will need measures to respond when a user expresses ideas of suicide or self harm or an intention to commit an act that could cause death or serious bodily harm to an individual, said officials. The bill would not require the companies behind the chatbots to report those interactions to police. WATCH | Social media can be ‘safe by design’ without full ban, culture minister says:Social media can be ‘safe by design’ without full ban, culture minister saysWhen asked why the government did not outright ban social media for children under the age of 16, Culture Minister Marc Miller said ‘there’s part of my brain that agrees with it, but I think we know that social media can be made safe by design.’ He added that there is an important role for both parents and provincial governments to play.Asked why there is no age restriction on chatbots, Miller called those platforms part of an “evolving playing field,” that can be “very damaging towards kids” but can also be educational tools.”We’re going to have to keep a close eye on it. It did not feel appropriate to impose a minimum age restriction at this time,” he said. The government proposes setting up a Digital Safety Commission to make sure companies abide. Once set up, it would be responsible for enforcing the act, developing regulations and guidance, assessing compliance and managing complaints. Social media platforms will have to quickly remove two categories of content — content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor and non-consensual intimate images. Those companies will also have to “apply labels to synthetically generated content,” the government said in a press release.”While laws exist to respond once harm has happened, there is currently very little that requires online services to prevent harm in the first place.”According to the bill, the maximum penalty for a violation would be either $10 million or three per cent of the company’s gross global revenue — whichever is greater. Companies could face multiple penalties for repeated violations.Governments under pressureThe federal government has been signalling some kind of ban for children and young teens for months. Ottawa, like governments around the world, is under pressure from parents and advocates to address social media’s addictive features and limit access to predatory and sometimes dangerous content. Psychologists have been warning that design features like infinite scroll are impacting teens’ self-esteem and mental health. The Canadian government has also faced calls to regulate AI chatbots following the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., mass shooting earlier this year. In the wake of the tragedy, it emerged that OpenAI did not share internal warnings with law enforcement about messages sent to its chatbot, the immensely popular ChatGPT, by the shooter. Amanda Todd, 15, is shown in this undated handout photo from one of the many Facebook memorial sites set up after her death. (The Canadian Press)Carol Todd has been waiting for action for more than a decade. Her daughter Amanda killed herself in 2012, just one month after posting a video online detailing the cyberbullying and extortion she had been living with for two years. Since then, she’s been advocating for online harms legislation. “It’s sad that it took so long, but I’m glad that something is in place for the future,” she told CBC News. “We don’t want to hear any more tragic stories. Amanda’s was one of the first explosive stories in Canada and her story just keeps floating up to the forefront with all of this.… But I swear my daughter just keeps watching us from somewhere and prodding and poking at us.”Canada learning from Australia, say officials Australia became the first country late last year to set a minimum age to possess an account on TikTok, YouTube and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook.However, kids have reportedly been able to get around the restrictions. Canadian officials told reporters they are learning from Australia and other jurisdictions, stressing there’s no system that is 100 per cent effective.WATCH | Miller on age restrictions for AI:Age restrictions on AI chatbots ‘did not feel appropriate’ at this time, culture minister saysMinister of Canadian Identity and Culture Marc Miller said that while the Safe Social Media Act would not ban AI chatbots for those under the age of 16, the same duty to protect them ‘by design’ will still apply. He called it ‘a very basic thing to expect’ from such services, ‘particularly in the wake of Tumbler Ridge.'”We wouldn’t have courts if laws were perfect and everyone observed them. That is the reality,” said Miller.”That is why it was so key to have a commission able to interact with industry and able to give some teeth to this law, so that we just didn’t hope and pray that this would be enforced.”Privacy concerns raisedMichael Geist, the University of Ottawa’s Canada Research Chair in internet and e-commerce law, called it an “enormously problematic policy.””There are real concerns about the privacy implications of this for all Canadians because it’s not just kids that are going to be forced to provide some sort of age verification,” he said. “That’s a very risky approach and one in which the government doesn’t even have the details yet about how that system would actually function.”Meta, whose platforms will almost certainly be covered by age restrictions, called social media bans counterproductive but said it’s encouraged that the government “appears to recognize that online services that provide teens with sufficient safeguards” can be valuable.The tech giant behind Facebook and Instagram argued age verification should be left up to the app stores rather than the developers of individual apps.A previous attempt to pass an online harms bill was marked by controversy and died when former prime minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament in early 2025.That bill included Criminal Code and Canadian Human Rights Act amendments that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said would chill free speech.Conservatives have said they want to review the new bill before commenting. 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