Social Policy in Ontario

Carney government makes long-awaited move to restrict social media access for children

Posted on June 12, 2026 in Child & Family Policy Context

Source: TheStar.com — Authors: Raisa Patel

TheStar.com – Politics/Federal
June 10, 2026.   By Raisa Patel, Ottawa Bureau

The Carney Liberals have introduced a revamped online harms bill that would restrict access to social media for those under 16, make AI chatbots safer, and impose new rules on digital platforms.

OTTAWA — The Carney Liberals have introduced a revamped online harms bill that aims to restrict access to social media for those under 16, but leaves many questions unanswered about when and how such a ban would be rolled out.

The Safe Social Media Act, tabled Wednesday, would compel social media companies to bar users under the age of 16 from possessing accounts on their platforms, but will allow companies to exempt themselves from those restrictions as long as they can demonstrate that “sufficient safeguards” are in place to protect children.

The bill does not lay out what those safeguards must be, but suggests that some of the criteria platforms must meet could include special accounts designed for children, parental controls, and other unspecified design features. Briefing documents provided to media also referenced measures to reduce the addictive nature of social media and deploying safe search settings.

It is not yet known how quickly a ban would be put in place following the passage of the legislation, which is likely to happen later this year, given the Liberals’ majority status in Parliament.

Platforms captured by the restrictions include traditional social media networks like Facebook and X, sites that offer livestreamed content, and adult services that host pornographic content. The exemption to bypass age restriction rules will not apply to platforms offering adult content.

The legislation also proposes to make AI chatbots safer, but will not ban youth from accessing the technology. The AI tools are not counted as a form of private communications, which are not subject to any of the requirements laid out in the bill.

Instead of a ban, AI companies must curb the risk of chatbots conveying harmful information, implement crisis protocols when users share concerning content, and reduce the chances of the tool engaging in harmful behaviour.

Social media platforms will also face similar regulations, such as improving how users can flag concerning content, being more transparent about the risks posed by their services, and labelling all artificially-generated content.

The bill will also launch a Digital Safety Commission that would develop standards for AI and social media services, oversee compliance with the act, levy financial penalties, and manage complaints that online platforms fail to adequately address on their own.

“We’ve seen the tragic consequences of online harm, both around the world and here in Canada,” Culture Minister Marc Miller said Wednesday.

“This is unacceptable. We’re failing our children. Enough is enough. Our parents cannot face these challenges alone, and the safety of children can’t be an afterthought.”

 The bill comes amid renewed calls from experts and children’s rights groups for stronger safeguards and tougher accountability mechanisms for social media companies to protect young Canadians from the dangers of online spaces.

Meta and Google said Wednesday evening they were assessing the legislation.

“Online safety is a shared responsibility and we’ve invested heavily in industry-leading protections that help keep Canadians safe when using our products and services,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Meta said social media bans are “counterproductive, but 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.”

The legislation replaces a controversial Trudeau-era effort that never became law, but now reflects a digital landscape that has rapidly changed since Prime Minister Mark Carney’s predecessor was in power. Countries around the world have begun implementing and pursuing youth social media bans, while widespread AI use has prompted demands for chatbot crackdowns, particularly in Canada, after it emerged that the person responsible for the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting had been flagged while using the technology months before the attack.

While Miller referred to the tragedy on Wednesday, the bill only gives the digital regulator the power to issue guidelines about when companies ought to alert the RCMP about content that might cause death or bodily harm to others.

Explaining why he didn’t apply youth restrictions to chatbots, the minister said the harms posed by AI tools are not as well-understood as those created by social media.

“They don’t have the same social role as the social media platforms. So we know very well that these chatbots themselves can be safe by design, they can be subject to requirements that protect children,” Miller said in French, adding that it was not the “right time” to put forward a full moratorium on the technology.

The previous government bill looked at a handful of harms targeting both adults and children online. Wednesday’s legislation tackles a number of those categories, including content that induces a child to harm themselves, content used to bully a child, content that foments hatred and incites violence, and extremist content.

While the federal Liberals hope the bill will be robustly debated in Parliament, a number of questions remain about how the legislation will actually be implemented.

The government is aiming to have the entire regime up and running 18 months from now, but government officials left open on Wednesday the possibility of a youth social media ban being put in place after the bill’s passage, but before the digital regulator, which would oversee enforcement of the ban, was fully established.

It was left unclear how a ban would work without a regulator: Miller’s office later clarified that the hope is to initiate the ban once the law officially comes into force and the regulator’s office is operational.

Platforms will also face penalties for violations, with the maximum amount set at $10 million or three per cent of gross global revenue — whichever is greater — and even steeper fines if platforms commit more serious offences.

Canada’s social media restrictions follow a similar policy in Australia, which puts the burden on social media platforms to deactivate youth profiles and prevent those under 16 from making accounts. Platforms introduced age verification protocols to approve new accounts, but early evidence on the ban’s effectiveness suggests mixed results, with youth being able to circumvent restrictions.

Critics of an outright ban have argued that the measure does little to force tech companies to improve their safety protocols and to be more transparent about their internal processes.

Officials speaking to reporters on a background basis said Wednesday that age verification technology is quickly evolving, and that the methods platforms will use to check users’ ages have yet to be decided. The officials acknowledged that no method is fully foolproof, given that youth have a tendency to flout a variety of restrictions to which they are subjected.

With files from The Canadian Press

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/carney-government-makes-long-awaited-move-to-restrict-social-media-access-for-children/article_36d5e0c5-e568-4fb1-8397-d2dd7a856d29.html?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=0C810E7AE4E7C3CEB3816076F6F9881B&utm_campaign=bn_37363

Tags: crime prevention, Education, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, youth

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