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Valentina Poveda started her Instagram account for books when she was in grade eight. Now, she’s built a community and worries others might not get the same opportunity due to a possible social media ban.
“I’ve really gotten ahead because it’s [allowed] me to get real life experience since very young,” she said. “I don’t think I would have really [been] introduced to this world if it wasn’t for my book Instagram.”
Liberal grassroots members gathered in Montreal, Que., this weekend for the party’s national convention to discuss a variety of policy pitches, including age restrictions on using social media and AI chatbots. On Saturday, they voted in favour of a specific resolution which could set a “minimum age of 16 for creating social media accounts” and put the onus on companies that run the platforms to “prevent underage users from holding accounts.”
A second resolution called for anyone under the age of 16 to be banned from accessing “all AI chatbots and other potentially harmful forms of AI interaction,” including OpenAI’s and ChatGPT.
Poveda, who is now 17, utilized her own platform to make a name for herself in the space. She’s now in a co-op placement with a literary media company and dreams of pursuing a career in the industry.
While the proposed rules wouldn’t impact her and despite her positive experience, she says she’s not entirely against the idea of restrictions.
“I’ve seen a complete addiction. There are people that can’t go more than three minutes without checking their phone,” Poveda said. “I’ve really benefited from it because I had maturity and my parents were always there with me along the way.”
She said she’s always been hyper vigilant while using social media, especially since her parents instilled in her the importance of safety on social media. But Poveda warned if the regulation becomes law, it will be difficult to enforce.
“Teenagers are very creative, so there’s always ways to go around it,” she said. “I think it’s really important to balance the rights and the wrongs of social media because if not, it can become really harmful and debilitating for not just teens but as well as adults.”
Her father, Johnny Poveda, says parents need to be more involved with their children’s social media use, allowing them freedoms while still maintaining open discussions about safety.
“When you open your computer, your laptop, you open [a] big world. In this big world, a lot of bad things, a lot of good,” he said. “The problem is not the technology, the problem is how you educate [your] kid.”
Toronto Counselling Centre for Teens owner Jessica Zeyl says she’s unsure if implementing a new policy will address the issue, but she’s glad there’s more attention on the topic.
“Social media both helps and hurts teens,” she said. “Sometimes you just need all hands on deck.”
Zeyl says there are a variety of concerns when it comes to social media, ranging from their addictive nature, to virtual exclusion and bullying, to verification of artificially generated content and posts that are pessimistic in nature.
“Their phones are just up close and personal,” she said.
But Zeyl, who is also a mom of two teenagers, says the execution of such a ban is complicated.
“[Teens] have [an] incredible amount of skills and savvy when it comes to integrating social media into their life,” she said. “Even if you are that parent who is checking their phones, checking all their social media accounts … it’s possible that your teen is sneaking something into the mix that you don’t know about.”
