06-18-2026 
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Canada’s government has introduced legislation banning social media platforms for under-16s unless they can demonstrate sufficient safeguards for children, as well as placing restrictions on artificial intelligence chatbots.
Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages, introduced last week the Safe Social Media Act (Bill C-34), which aims to make online services more accountable and transparent and ensure that social media services and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are responsible for addressing harm before it occurs.
The proposed legislation would introduce new safety requirements for social media and AI chatbot services, including an age restriction that prevents children under 16 from having accounts.
However, this would not amount to a total ban on under-16s holding social media accounts, as the bill includes a pathway for social media services to seek an exemption if they can demonstrate that they have put in place sufficient safeguards for children.
“We have seen the very serious consequences that online harms can have. As technologies evolve, we must ensure our laws keep pace, because parents cannot face these challenges alone,” Miller said. “The safety of children cannot be an afterthought. This legislation will introduce stronger responsibilities for online platforms to ensure their services are safe by design and include appropriate measures to keep children safe.”
The bill was inspired by growing concerns around the risks posed to children online, from child sexual exploitation and cyberbullying to self-harm and mental health issues. According to the Canadian government, in 2019, one in four youth (25%) aged 12 to 17 reported experiencing cyberbullying in the previous year, while in 2024, police services across Canada reported 16,905 incidents of online child sexual exploitation, a 347% rise since 2014.
While laws exist in the country to respond to harm after it occurs, there are currently few safeguards that require online services to prevent harm in the first place. The proposed legislation seeks to correct this by providing a legislative and regulatory framework for social media services, including user-uploaded livestreaming and adult content services, and certain AI chatbot services.
“The evidence is clear: online harms are putting our children especially at risk,” said Anna Gainey, Secretary of State (Children and Youth). “The Safe Social Media Act will hold platforms accountable and help make the internet safer.”
Specifically, the framework will operate through three core duties: the duty to protect children, which will apply to all regulated services under the act; the duty to act responsibly, which will require social media services to mitigate risks associated with exposure to harmful content, apply labels to synthetically generated content, and provide clear and accessible ways for users to flag harmful content and block other users; and the duty to make certain content inaccessible, which will require the rapid removal of content that sexually victimizes a child, or intimate content communicated without consent, including deepfake sexual images.
AI chatbot services would be subject to an additional tailored duty, requiring them to mitigate the risk of the chatbot communicating harmful content, be transparent in terms of their reporting thresholds in crisis situations, such as when a user intends to harm themselves or another person, and mitigate the risk that the chatbot will engage in harmful behavior.To ensure that these various mandates are being followed, the legislation would also establish an independent “Digital Safety Commission,” whose responsibilities will include enforcing statutory obligations and holding regulated services accountable, auditing for compliance, issuing compliance orders and penalties, and setting new standards for online safety by conducting research on global best practices.
“For over 20 years, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection has documented a steep and accelerating rise in online harms against children, including child sexual abuse and exploitation,” said Lianna McDonald, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. “The tabling of the Digital Safety Act is a historic day that could turn the tide on this trajectory.”
She added that “by establishing clear obligations, most notably delaying access to social media until age 16, this Bill recognizes that childhood is a finite and vulnerable period—one that demands protection, not exploitation.”
Canada’s move to tighten regulation around the online sphere is just the latest in a string of similar moves by states around the world, as the tide of opinion appears to be increasingly turning against social media platforms’ laissez-faire self-governance.
Global war on social media corrupting the youth
In 2024, Australia passed landmark legislation requiring social media platforms to prevent users under the age of 16 from creating or maintaining accounts on major services, such as TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, X, Facebook, and potentially YouTube.
The law does not directly punish young people or their families for using these services; instead, it places responsibility on platforms to take reasonable steps to block under-16 account holders, with penalties of up to AU$50 million (US$34.98 million) for companies that fail to comply.
Australia’s decisive action prompted renewed international debate over children’s access to social media, with a growing number of countries subsequently considering or introducing stricter age-verification and child online safety measures, though most have not yet gone as far as Australia.
In June 2026, Malaysia introduced regulatory requirements aimed at improving age assurance and restricting underage access to social media platforms, as part of broader online safety reforms. Meanwhile, countries including France, Denmark, Greece, Poland, Spain, Norway, and the United Kingdom are pursuing various proposals, regulatory consultations, or broader child-safety reforms to protect minors from harmful online content and excessive social media use.
If passed, Canada’s proposed legislation would see it join Australia and Malaysia in the growing list of jurisdictions with some form of social media ban for children.
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