OTTAWA — The Carney government has introduced legislation that would ban children under 16 from holding social media accounts unless platforms can prove they have sufficient safeguards in place.Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller tabled Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, in the House of Commons on Wednesday.The 92-page bill would enact a new Digital Safety Act and create a Digital Safety Commission of Canada to regulate social media services, some online services and artificial intelligence chatbot services.The bill says its purpose is to “promote the safety of persons in Canada, particularly children,” reduce harms caused by harmful online content and make regulated platforms “transparent and accountable.”The legislation defines harmful content as including non-consensual intimate content, content that sexually victimizes a child or re-victimizes a survivor, content that induces a child to harm themselves, content used to bully a child, hate-fomenting content, content inciting violence and terrorism or violent extremism content..The bill would impose a “duty to protect children” on regulated services, including design features to be set later by regulation.It would also require age-related measures to prevent children from accessing pornographic content and allow the government to set rules preventing people under 16 from having accounts on regulated social media services.Social media platforms could seek an exemption from the under-16 account ban if they can show they have taken sufficient measures to protect children.The bill does not require platforms to proactively search all content on their services to identify harmful content.“Nothing in this Act requires an operator to proactively search content on a regulated service that it operates in order to identify harmful content,” the bill states.However, regulations could require platforms to use technology to prevent child sexual victimization material or survivor-revictimizing content from being uploaded..The bill also excludes private messaging features from the duties imposed on social media or online services. A private messaging feature is defined as one that allows users to communicate with a limited number of users they choose, rather than a potentially unlimited public audience.Regulated social media platforms would also be required to provide tools allowing users to block others and flag harmful content.The bill would force platforms to label synthetic content, including AI-generated content, under rules to be established by regulation.AI chatbot services would face separate duties, including requirements to reduce the risk of chatbots communicating harmful content, ensure intervention in crisis situations and mitigate the risk of harmful chatbot behaviour.The bill defines a chatbot service as an AI system available online that uses natural language to provide adaptive, human-like responses and is capable of simulating a sustained relationship with a user, including one resembling friendship, intimacy or therapeutic support.The Digital Safety Commission would be given inspection powers, compliance powers and the ability to issue administrative monetary penalties.Maximum penalties could reach the greater of $10 million or 3% of gross global revenue for violations.Miller said the bill is intended to put more responsibility on online platforms instead of leaving parents to deal with online harms alone.“We have seen the very serious consequences that online harms can have,” Miller said.“The safety of children cannot be an afterthought.”The bill received first reading Wednesday.
