OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — Canada’s Liberal government introduced a bill that will ban social media use for children under 16, but constitutional experts warned that there could be ulterior motives for such a bill, including a digital ID.
On June 10, Culture Minister Marc Miller announced Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, which includes the Digital Safety Act and the Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act. The full text of the bill is not yet available.
Besides banning social media for children, the new bill will also require online platforms having measures in place to report credible threats of violence or self-harm to the police.
It is expected that the social media ban will be similar to one in Australia, which bans youth under 16 from having Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and other platform accounts.
However, it has been reported that social media platforms may receive exemptions if they can prove that they meet new safety standards for users, especially minors.
The Liberal government had previously hinted that a social media ban was coming.
Miller claimed that the “grassroots have spoken” on the matter and that “it’s clear that a ban or a moratorium on social media by kids, who we do need to protect, can be an important element, but it can’t be the only one.”
“I do think it could be an important layer, but it has to be seen as that, and not as the answer to everything. Online harms don’t end as soon as you turn 15, or 16, or 17,” he said.
Recently, Liberal Party members voted in favor of a resolution calling for a social media ban for minors. Some provinces, such as Manitoba, have said they are looking to implement social media bans of their own, and other provinces have hinted they may do the same.
Recent polls show public support for a minor social media ban as high as 75 percent in favor.
The Liberal government has been flirting for some time with the idea of creating a national digital ID, which could become a part of any social media ban.
The way the social media ban will be introduced is expected to be through a reintroduced bill that would regulate “online hate” and ban legal internet.
According to a report to Canada’s Senate social affairs committee, the Department of Industry noted that the government is looking at a “future online safety regime” to reduce online “harms.”
Social media addiction is a real issue – even U.S. courts have ruled that it can have negative effects on children. A jury found Meta and Google liable for $6 million in damages in a landmark case that alleged that popular social media apps are designed to be addictive.
Reacting to news of the Liberals’ social media ban, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) warned in an X post that the ban could lead to overreaching digital ID laws and that parents should be in charge of their kids’ online use.
“The Justice Centre opposes government internet surveillance and the displacement of parents as the primary decision-makers responsible for protecting young people from online harms,” it said in its X statement.