Dan Albas

Potentially the big news out of Parliament this week will be the tabling of Bill C-34, known as the “Safe Social Media Act”.

At my time of writing this week’s report, this Bill has only just been tabled in the House of Commons, and I have not yet had a chance to fully read all of the contents. The most well-known proposal in Bill C-34 is a legislated effort that moves to restrict social media content for kids under age 16.

The obvious question is how will that work in practice? The Bill does not directly answer this question either. Instead, it proposes that the onus will be on social media companies to figure out how to ensure that certain live-streaming services, adult content services, and some user-shared content is restricted from social media accounts for children under 16 years old here in Canada.

It has also been suggested that social media companies who fail to comply with these requirements may face fines although the details on that at this point are still unclear. To regulate all of this it is also proposed to create another layer of bureaucracy in Ottawa that would be known as the Digital Safety Commission of Canada.

It would fall to this Digital Safety Commission to determine what is considered restricted or harmful content to children and deal with compliance issues and concerns. Conceivably it would also potentially deal with public complaints as well.

I should also add that this Bill does to some extent also target “AI chatbots” and includes provisions for crisis intervention protocols. There is also an exemption clause from this bill for social media companies who demonstrate “adequate safeguards to protect children.”

What happens next and when would these restrictions apply? At this point the Bill has only had first reading in the House of Commons and many details are yet to be revealed.

As is often the case, Committee Stage review that occurs at second reading will be critically important so that stakeholders and other impacted groups and individuals have an opportunity to provide input as well. If this Bill was to pass in the House of Commons in either an amended or unamended format it would then proceed to the Canadian Senate where it would receive similar scrutiny.

The Federal government has indicated that should this Bill receive Royal Assent it is estimated that it could take another 18 months for the provisions to be fully implemented here in Canada.

This leads to my question for this week. What are your thoughts on the idea of restricting social media content to those who are 16 and under here in Canada?

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New Federal Bill Targets Kids' Social Media Access | Dan Albas, MP Potentially the big news out of Parliament this week will be the tabling of Bill […]