Following recent moves made by Australia, the Government of Canada is looking to ban social media services for kids under 14 as part of an upcoming ‘online harms bill,’ as three sources told The Globe and Mail. The U.K. is also considering Australia’s example.
Currently, Canada has a ban on social media for children under the age of 13, but many pretend they are older — I remember lying about my age when I made my Facebook account, and so did most of my friends.
The proposal to raise the age to 14 would need to be approved by cabinet. Two sources told The Globe and Mail that Ministers are planning to meet as early as next month to consider the ban. There’s also talk about whether a new regulator would be needed to police the ban.
The Government of Canada’s online harms bill is a replacement for a 2024 bill that was tabled ahead of the past federal election and is expected to be introduced in months.
The Government of Canada believes that banning children from social media is for their own good, as child safety advocates told politicians that lack of controls online make children vulnerable to sexual exploitation, grooming and scams. And data shown by the Canadian Centre of Child Protection indicates that from June 2022, to the end of December 2025, they received 127 cases of extreme violence online, mostly from the past 12 months.
How could it work?
Looking at Australia’s lead, ten platforms were banned for those under 16 by the government, which included Facebook, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, Kick and Twitch. However, Google Classroom, YouTube Kids and WhatsApp were not included in the ban. Neither were Roblox and Discord, two platforms that some critics would like to have the ban include.
Australia is enforcing the ban by punishing social media companies with fines up to A49.5m (C$46,68m) for repeated or serious breaches. The government told social media companies that they need to take “reasonable steps” to keep kids off their platform and consider age assurance technologies, including face, voice recognition and even government ID.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads closing accounts this past December and anyone who was mistakenly kicked off could provide government ID or use a video selfie to prove their age.
This comes after Canada’s federal court indicated that TikTok can continue operating in the country.
Image credit: Shutterstock
Source: Globe & Mail, BBC
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