Canada has introduced legislation that would prohibit children under 16 from holding accounts on social media platforms, while also imposing new safety requirements on artificial intelligence chatbot services.
On June 10, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Marc Miller tabled Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, in Ottawa. The bill creates two parallel structures: new duties and safety requirements for regulated online services and an independent Digital Safety Commission to enforce compliance and administer user complaints.
“As technologies evolve, we must ensure our laws keep pace, because parents cannot face these challenges alone,” Miller said. “The safety of children cannot be an afterthought.”
Platform Duties and Exemption Pathway
The legislation establishes three core duties for regulated services. All covered platforms must fulfill a Duty to Protect Children. Social media services face two additional obligations: a Duty to Act Responsibly, requiring risk assessments, synthetic content labeling, and accessible user reporting tools; and a Duty to Make Certain Content Inaccessible, requiring rapid removal of child sexual abuse material and non-consensual intimate imagery, including deepfakes.
As CBC reports, platforms that can demonstrate “adequate safeguards” may apply for an exemption to the under-16 restriction. Technology analyst Carmi Levy said the exemption pathway separates Canada’s approach from broader bans enacted in other countries.
“It’s very different from legislation we’ve seen in other countries, and it certainly leaves much more room for the technology companies to actually change their technology, not just remove kids from the platform, but to actually make it safer,” Levy said.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, described social media bans as “counterproductive” but expressed support for the exemption mechanism. “We are encouraged that the government appears to recognize that online services that provide teens with sufficient safeguards, like we’ve done with teen accounts and for teens’ conversations with AIs, provide real value to young people,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.
The bill also requires services to reduce user exposure to seven categories of harmful content, including material that sexually victimizes a child, induces self-harm, facilitates cyberbullying, foments hatred, incites violence, or promotes terrorism.
AI Chatbots Face New Obligations
AI chatbot services face a separate Duty to Act Responsibly under the bill. Requirements include mitigating the risk of communicating harmful content, disclosing reporting thresholds in crisis situations, such as when a user expresses intent to harm themselves or others, and reducing the risk of harmful chatbot behavior. The bill does not apply age restrictions to AI chatbot services.
International Context
Canada’s legislation arrives amid an expanding international debate over child access to social platforms.
Australia enacted a blanket ban covering users under 16 in November 2024. The U.S. government, in a recent submission to the UK’s parallel child online safety consultation, opposed platform-level bans, arguing they impose “disproportionate” compliance burdens on technology companies, and advocated for parental controls as the primary regulatory mechanism instead.
Police services across Canada reported 16,905 incidents of online child sexual exploitation in 2024, a 347% increase since 2014. In 2019, one in four Canadian youth aged 12 to 17 reported experiencing cyberbullying in the previous year.
Bill C-34 must pass Parliament before taking effect.
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
Canada has introduced legislation that would prohibit children under 16 from holding accounts on social media platforms, while also imposing new safety requirements on artificial intelligence chatbot services.
On June 10, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Marc Miller tabled Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, in Ottawa. The bill creates two parallel structures: new duties and safety requirements for regulated online services and an independent Digital Safety Commission to enforce compliance and administer user complaints.
“As technologies evolve, we must ensure our laws keep pace, because parents cannot face these challenges alone,” Miller said. “The safety of children cannot be an afterthought.”
Platform Duties and Exemption Pathway
The legislation establishes three core duties for regulated services. All covered platforms must fulfill a Duty to Protect Children. Social media services face two additional obligations: a Duty to Act Responsibly, requiring risk assessments, synthetic content labeling, and accessible user reporting tools; and a Duty to Make Certain Content Inaccessible, requiring rapid removal of child sexual abuse material and non-consensual intimate imagery, including deepfakes.
As CBC reports, platforms that can demonstrate “adequate safeguards” may apply for an exemption to the under-16 restriction. Technology analyst Carmi Levy said the exemption pathway separates Canada’s approach from broader bans enacted in other countries.
“It’s very different from legislation we’ve seen in other countries, and it certainly leaves much more room for the technology companies to actually change their technology, not just remove kids from the platform, but to actually make it safer,” Levy said.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, described social media bans as “counterproductive” but expressed support for the exemption mechanism. “We are encouraged that the government appears to recognize that online services that provide teens with sufficient safeguards, like we’ve done with teen accounts and for teens’ conversations with AIs, provide real value to young people,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.
The bill also requires services to reduce user exposure to seven categories of harmful content, including material that sexually victimizes a child, induces self-harm, facilitates cyberbullying, foments hatred, incites violence, or promotes terrorism.
AI Chatbots Face New Obligations
AI chatbot services face a separate Duty to Act Responsibly under the bill. Requirements include mitigating the risk of communicating harmful content, disclosing reporting thresholds in crisis situations, such as when a user expresses intent to harm themselves or others, and reducing the risk of harmful chatbot behavior. The bill does not apply age restrictions to AI chatbot services.
International Context
Canada’s legislation arrives amid an expanding international debate over child access to social platforms.
Australia enacted a blanket ban covering users under 16 in November 2024. The U.S. government, in a recent submission to the UK’s parallel child online safety consultation, opposed platform-level bans, arguing they impose “disproportionate” compliance burdens on technology companies, and advocated for parental controls as the primary regulatory mechanism instead.
Police services across Canada reported 16,905 incidents of online child sexual exploitation in 2024, a 347% increase since 2014. In 2019, one in four Canadian youth aged 12 to 17 reported experiencing cyberbullying in the previous year.
Bill C-34 must pass Parliament before taking effect.
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