Ottawa's bill regulating social media, AI expected to include some age restrictions

undercoat regime minister german mark Carney's government testament table a bill on Wednesday which is expected to restrict young Canadians' access to social media platforms and bring in online safety standards.

Teasing the announcement, the government said the new legislation will "make social media services and AI chatbots safer for children."

"I think it's obvious why it's a priority. Kids are dying," Canadian Identity Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday morning.

Earlier this week, the Globe and Mail reported that the bill will propose a ban on social media for children under 16, mitigate harms caused by the rise of artificial-intelligence chatbots and stand up a new digital regulator to establish safety standards.

The newspaper reported that companies that then meet this criteria would be permitted to allow young Canadians back on their platforms.

In announcing its AI strategy last week, the government said it would introduce legislation to address the safety of chatbots.

Another source said AI chatbots will be regulated, but suggested the rules will be less sweeping than those put on the social media companies. There will be a duty to protect children and measures for age verification, they said.

'Kids are dying': Miller says online harms legislation a government priority

Neither Miller, who is the lead on the bill, nor Justice Minister Sean Fraser would confirm what's in the legislation — citing rules protecting the confidentiality of bills before they're tabled in the House of Commons. 

"I think it suffices to say that we will take all reasonable measures to make sure kids are safe in this country," said Miller.

The government has been under pressure from parents and advocates to address social media harms, from their severe mental health impacts, to their addictive design and potential to expose users to harmful content.

Groups like Unplugged Canada, a grassroots advocacy group, has been pushing a government-imposed social media ban for children under 16.

Critics of a full ban argue kids can easily get around restrictions and that it doesn't keep social media companies accountable.

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Taylor Owen, the Beaverbrook Chair in Ethics, Media and Communications at McGill University, sat on the government's advisory panel on online safety.

"A ban assumes that a product can never be made safe," he said.

"I do think it's fair to say that until companies prove their products are safe, we think the dangers in them are so great that we should temporarily remove their access to a market. I think that is a reasonable proposition."

The model Owen has been pushing for, which the Globe's reporting reflects, would see an independent body set out enforceable regulations for social media companies to follow, like risk assessments, transparency regimes and age-appropriate designs.

Owen is also hoping the upcoming legislation will include age-appropriate measures to address AI products like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok.

"It would be crazy not to include them," he said.

A previous attempt to bring on an online harms bill died when former prime minister Justin Trudeau prorogued Parliament in early 2025.

That divisive bill included Criminal Code and Canadian Human Rights Act amendments, targeting content used to bully a child or encourage a child to harm themselves, hate speech, content that incites violence or terrorism, content that sexualizes children or victims of sexual violence and sexual content that is posted without consent.

At the time Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused the government of chilling free speech, saying bullying and other forms of online harms should be handled by police, not "pushed off to a new bureaucracy."

Ahead of this new bill, Fraser pushed back on accusations the government is trampling on free speech.

"You don't have to give up your freedoms in order to ensure people can live safe in a society," he said. 

"When you're meeting with the parents who are dealing with a child who's been bullied, not only in the schoolyard but when they come home at night, it doesn't feel particularly free for that kid living their life day to day." 

Conservative MP Kevin Waugh, the party's associate critic for Canadian identity and culture, said he watching to see what the Liberals table.

"But to be honest with you right now, let's signal to the parents to do a better job, if you don't mind me saying," the Saskatchewan MP said.

"We gotta teach the parents to parent."

Australia issues social media ban for kids under 16

Miller's bill comes as a number of other countries plan to curtail children's access to social media and days ahead of the G7 in France where the issue is also expected to be raised. 

Australia became the first country late last year to set a minimum age to possess an account on TikTok, YouTube and Meta's Instagram and Facebook.

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