Canada appears to be the next country to join Australia in banning children from using social media. Federal officials have included a provision in the online harms bill to ban children under the age of 14 from using social media.
Currently there is already a ban on children under the age of 13 from using social media, however this new provision is going to raise this bar to 14 and create a governmental regulator to enforce the ban. This regulator is a slimmed down version of the previous version seen in the defunct C-63, the previous online harms bill. Now this proposed regulator will be able to impose fines on social media companies for noncompliance, and provide a space for Canadians to go to, to report online harms.
The current online harms bill is expected to be tabled in the spring parliamentary session, and includes several new provisions in shielding teenagers from marketing. With another bill planned to update privacy legislation. There has been some controversy over how much this new online harms bill will be borrowing from the previous online harms bill, but [Justice Minister Sean Fraser insists this bill will be entirely separate from the old one](https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2025/12/22/ottawa-set-to-revive-online-harms-legislation-in-2026-source/486577/).
I think social media can be pretty harmful to children, and that kids that young shouldn’t use it.
But I’m against the government deciding that for the kids. It’s the decision of the parents to make. At least, that’s what I believe based on my current knowledge of the matter.
I also don’t think Australia’s bill has brought about much good yet. So maybe let’s not do bring this to Canada shall we?
Also don’t we have bigger fish to fry than banning kids of social media?
Amtoj on
Man, I’m still worried about the data privacy implications of this, but I guess the genie is out of the bottle. I better not be asked to give my ID to Musk or Zuckerberg if this becomes law. This also better not be a slippery slope into more internet restrictions.
4 Comments
Canada appears to be the next country to join Australia in banning children from using social media. Federal officials have included a provision in the online harms bill to ban children under the age of 14 from using social media.
Currently there is already a ban on children under the age of 13 from using social media, however this new provision is going to raise this bar to 14 and create a governmental regulator to enforce the ban. This regulator is a slimmed down version of the previous version seen in the defunct C-63, the previous online harms bill. Now this proposed regulator will be able to impose fines on social media companies for noncompliance, and provide a space for Canadians to go to, to report online harms.
The current online harms bill is expected to be tabled in the spring parliamentary session, and includes several new provisions in shielding teenagers from marketing. With another bill planned to update privacy legislation. There has been some controversy over how much this new online harms bill will be borrowing from the previous online harms bill, but [Justice Minister Sean Fraser insists this bill will be entirely separate from the old one](https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2025/12/22/ottawa-set-to-revive-online-harms-legislation-in-2026-source/486577/).
Edit: Forgot archived link: [https://archive.fo/qUVBS](https://archive.fo/qUVBS)
!ping Can
I’m OK with this
I think social media can be pretty harmful to children, and that kids that young shouldn’t use it.
But I’m against the government deciding that for the kids. It’s the decision of the parents to make. At least, that’s what I believe based on my current knowledge of the matter.
I also don’t think Australia’s bill has brought about much good yet. So maybe let’s not do bring this to Canada shall we?
Also don’t we have bigger fish to fry than banning kids of social media?
Man, I’m still worried about the data privacy implications of this, but I guess the genie is out of the bottle. I better not be asked to give my ID to Musk or Zuckerberg if this becomes law. This also better not be a slippery slope into more internet restrictions.