Announced by the Canadian government on Wednesday, the proposed Safer Social Media Act (Bill C-34) aims to reduce harms to children online and hold social media and AI chatbot companies accountable for addressing such harms, citing child sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, self-harm and mental health impacts.
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Under the proposed law the Canadian government would ban users under the age of 16 from having social media accounts. This also means age verification for online services, and legally mandated security requirements for social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, and companies with AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Cloud.
A statement from Mark Miller, Canadian Minister of Identity and Culture, who introduced the bill, said, “We have seen the very serious consequences of online harm. As technologies evolve, we must ensure our laws keep pace, because parents cannot face these challenges alone.”
“Children’s safety cannot be an afterthought. This legislation will introduce stronger responsibilities for online platforms to ensure that their services are safe by design and include appropriate measures to keep children safe.”
The bill comes months after Australia made history last year with its unprecedented Online Protection Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act, which banned social media for children under 16. Australian children, in particular, have found solutions. In 2026, Brazil, Austria and Indonesia have followed suit, with the governments of the UK, France, Thailand, Spain and other countries considering their own initiatives.
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Canada’s proposed Safer Social Media Act would establish a new Digital Security Commission that would require online services to “identify, mitigate and address risks” on their platforms. They will also be required to take measures “to reduce children’s exposure to certain content and high-risk interactions”, which includes seven categories of “harmful content” defined as “content that sexually assaults a child or revictimizes a survivor, intimate content transmitted without consent, content that incites a child to harm themselves, content used to threaten a child, incitement to hatred material identified as “incitement of violence, and terrorism or violent extremism material”.
Social media companies will also be required by law to adequately label AI-generated content, “be transparent in terms of their reporting extent in crisis situations,” and AI chatbot services will be required to “minimize or reduce the risk of chatbots communicating harmful content.”[ing] In harmful behavior.”
Dr. Bolu Ogunyemi, President of the Canadian Medical Association, supported the bill in a press statement, saying, “The time is up. It is unacceptable for foreign-owned platforms to continue to get rich at the expense of our children’s mental health, privacy and personal safety. This legislation makes Canada a global leader in digital security and ensures Canadians, especially young people, are safe online and out of harm’s way.”
The Canadian Center for Child Protection also publicly supported the bill. “The Canadian Center for Child Protection has documented a rapid increase in online harms against children for more than 20 years, including child sexual abuse and exploitation,” executive director Liana Macdonald said in a statement. “The introduction of the Digital Security Act is a historic day that could turn the tide on this trajectory.”
However, the Canadian Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms said Bill C-63 “goes far beyond targeting criminal conduct,” and “would undermine freedom of expression, due process and the rule of law in Canada.”
Their statement said, “The Online Harms Act would dramatically expand government censorship powers, punishing lawful expression online and authorizing preemptive restrictions on individual freedoms.” “In doing so, it would represent a fundamental departure from Canada’s long-standing commitment to freedom of expression and due process. Under Bill C-63, legitimate speech could be subject to investigation, punishment or expulsion based on vague and subjective standards. Individuals could face serious consequences not for committing a crime, but for expressing views that are later deemed unacceptable.”
Specifically, Canada’s Safer Social Media Act will sit within a larger legislative framework called the Digital Security Act. The law will also cover “user-uploaded livestreaming and adult content services.” This means minimum age restrictions not only for social media services but also for “access to pornographic content on regulated services.”
The growing trend of age-verification bills, which require individuals to prove their age to access not only adult content but also social media sites, has grown rapidly over the past few years. Still, as Mashable’s Anna Iovine has long reported, experts warn that these bills threaten digital privacy and freedom of speech.
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Government Family and Parenting
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