Canada’s Minister of Culture, Marc Miller, on Wednesday introduced the Digital Safety Act, a landmark bill that seeks to prohibit children under the age of 16 from opening social media accounts and to compel AI chatbot providers to restrict the generation of harmful content.
The proposed legislation positions Canada among a growing number of countries tightening regulations on social media platforms amid mounting concerns over online harms to children.
“We have seen the very serious consequences that online harms can have… The safety of children cannot be an afterthought,” Minister Miller stated while announcing the proposal.
The legislation would ban social media accounts for children under 16 years old, the statement said, adding that there would an exemption “pathway” for companies “if they can demonstrate that they have put in place sufficient safeguards for children.”
In addition to the social media ban, it would also regulate increasingly ubiquitous AI chatbots by requiring companies to “mitigate the risk of the chatbot communicating harmful content.”
Companies would also face requirements for transparency around “reporting thresholds in crisis situations,” such as when a user intends to harm themselves or another person.
The issue has been particularly sensitive in Canada following a mass shooting in April that left nine people dead in the small mining town of Tumbler Ridge, including the shooter.
OpenAI has faced intense criticism after it banned the shooter from its platform in June last year over the user’s troubling conversations on ChatGPT, but did not report the account to Canadian police because it said it saw no evidence of an imminent attack.
In December, Australia became the first country in the world to require TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and other top sites to remove accounts held by under-16s or face heavy fines.
Indonesia began enforcing its own social media ban for users under the age of 16 in March, while several European governments have announced their desire to make similar moves.
