Social Policy in Ontario

Any social media ban for kids must be national in scope, culture minister says

Posted on April 30, 2026 in Education Policy Context

Source: TheStar.com — Authors: Raisa Patel

TheStar.com – Politics
April 29, 2026.   By Raisa Patel, Ottawa Bureau

Manitoba is already pushing ahead with a ban and Ontario has signaled it may follow. 

OTTAWA—The federal government says any move to restrict kids from using social media must be co-ordinated with the provinces, as Manitoba pushes ahead with a ban and Ontario signals it may follow.

“Certainly, the federal government can’t regulate the educational system, and that’s where provinces have to step up and we’ve seen some stepping up,” Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller told reporters Wednesday.

“Definitely at some point, there has to be some co-ordination at the federal level and some real action taken by the federal government in its jurisdiction, but this is a shared jurisdiction, and both levels have to be doing their jobs to make sure kids are kept safe.”

Miller, who earlier this month said the Carney Liberals were “very seriously” weighing a ban of their own, said that he had spoken to Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew over the weekend to discuss the matter.

“There’s work to be done on both ends, but he’s very eager to protect kids in Manitoba, as am I,” Miller said.

Restricting young Canadians’ access to social media is an idea that has recently gathered steam in Ottawa, as the Liberals look at introducing online harms legislation that would replace a contentious bill tabled by former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government in 2024.

As part of that work, Miller reconvened a Trudeau-era expert panel last month to consider issues that have surfaced since the previous government’s consultations on online harms, such as advancements in artificial intelligence and the use of AI chatbots.

Over the weekend, Kinew pledged to become the first jurisdiction in Canada to ban children from using not just social media, but also AI chatbots, with his government later stating the move would apply to youth 16 and under and may first be implemented in schools.

Ontario is also considering a social media ban and wider restrictions on students using cellphones at school.

Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra told the Star in an interview that “what we’re seeing in other parts of the world is that kids under 16 need to have parents’ permission to download” social media platforms.

“We’ve been grappling with this across the country,” Calandra said Tuesday. “All of us recognize we’ve got to work with the federal government on it, and they’re also looking at working with us on it.”

While Prime Minister Mark Carney has emphasized AI adoption over regulation as a pillar of his economic policy, Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon acknowledged Wednesday that the risks youth are exposed to on social media and AI chatbots “are the same.”

“That’s why we’re in very close contact with the AI companies, and we are looking very closely to make sure our number one goal is to protect kids and to protect citizens, and to make sure this technology is a benefit to society, and you are going to see that,” Solomon told reporters. “We’re going to come forward with different options.”

The question of whether to fold AI chatbots into Ottawa’s expected online harms legislation reached a flashpoint after it emerged that OpenAI — the company behind the hugely popular ChatGPT — rebuffed internal warnings about alarming content posed to the chatbot by Jesse Van Rootselaar, the 18-year-old who would in February commit one of Canada’s deadliest mass shootings. The company later admitted that Van Rootselaar was also able to create a second ChatGPT account after her first was banned.

The tragedy led to meetings between Canadian ministers and OpenAI executives, with Solomon also meeting virtually with CEO Sam Altman to discuss OpenAI’s safety protocols. Altman said he was “deeply sorry” to the community of Tumbler Ridge, B.C. for failing to alert law enforcement when the concerning content was first flagged.

On Wednesday, seven lawsuits were filed in California on behalf of victims killed or hurt in shooting, where plaintiffs alleged that Altman and his company failed to warn authorities while aiding and abetting the shooting, among other allegations. In response, OpenAI said it has a “zero-tolerance policy for using our tools to assist in committing violence” and that the company has already improved its safeguards.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has historically opposed many of the Liberals’ attempts at online regulation, said Monday he was glad Manitoba’s Kinew had “started the conversation” and that due to his party’s shared concerns over protecting children online, his team was still developing “our thinking” on the matter.

Supriya Dwivedi, a former senior adviser to Trudeau on tech regulation and AI, questioned why the opposition response to Manitoba’s proposal has been so “muted” — and wondered why individual provinces felt they could handle the policy better than Australia, which became the first country to institute a social media ban for those under 16.

“Australia is a really good test case, because their experience is suggesting that right now, the ban doesn’t really work,” said Dwivedi, citing a compliance report that stated a “substantial” number of youth were able to keep their accounts, make news ones, or bypass age verification methods.

Dwivedi said there are a host of privacy concerns tied to age verification systems, but that more importantly, an outright ban would allow tech companies to evade accountability for hosting harmful content on their platforms.

“If we’re not looking at the regulatory aspect of the actual platforms and are only going with an age verification process for a ban … we’re just going to what? Throw kids to the wolves when they’re 16?” Dwivedi said.

With files from Tonda MacCharles, Kris Rushowy and The Canadian Press

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/any-social-media-ban-for-kids-must-be-national-in-scope-culture-minister-says/article_613731a1-de70-483a-b881-3979a955aade.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a05&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=0C810E7AE4E7C3CEB3816076F6F9881B&utm_campaign=pol_hl_35102

Tags: Education, jurisdiction, youth

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