Canada plans to ban social media for children and youth under 16 with the Safe Social Media Act. Some platforms may be able to get around the ban if they meet safety standards.
On June 10, 2026, the Government of Canada introduced Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act. The bill comes in response to growing concerns about the harms of online services such as social media and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots. Canada now joins a growing list of countries adopting social media bans for youth.
With the bill, the Canadian government aims to address these rising concerns. The bill targets issues such as cyberbullying, online child sexual exploitation and abuse, and negative mental health outcomes caused by online victimization.
Growing concerns
A March 2026 study by the Angus Reid Institute showed that 75% of Canadians supported a full social media ban for children under the age of 16. According to the poll, Canadians’ top concerns were about misinformation, cyberbullying, explicit content, poor mental health, and addiction.
Other studies show the possible risks of social media use for youth. A US study shows that youth who use social media for over three hours a day may face an increased risk of depression and anxiety. Evidence also shows that exposure to harmful content, including posts about self-harm and suicide, can encourage harmful behaviour.
An overview of the new acts
If passed, the Safe Social Media Act would create two new laws: the Digital Safety Act and the Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act.
The Digital Safety Act sets out rules that social media services, chatbot services and online services must follow to make their platforms safer. Among other things, this means identifying possible risks, taking action to address those risks, and adopting age-appropriate safety features.
The Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act creates a new agency, the Digital Safety Commission of Canada, to implement the Digital Safety Act.
Where would the acts apply?
The Digital Safety Act applies to “regulated services,” including online, social media and chatbot services. A service may be a regulated service if it has greater than or equal to a certain number of users. The number that applies for each type of service will be set out in the Act’s regulations. Services which have a lower number of users may still be listed as regulated services in the regulations.
The Act targets seven types of harmful content:
- Sharing intimate content without consent
- Sexually victimizing a child or revictimizing a survivor
- Encouraging self-harm
- Bullying a child
- Promoting hatred
- Encouraging violence
- Terrorism or violent extremism
Duties under the Digital Safety Act
The Digital Safety Act sets out four main duties for regulated services.
Duty to Protect Children
All services that fall under the Act will have a duty to protect children. This includes adopting design features to protect children, introducing an age restriction on services which feature adult content, and following guidelines about protecting children.
The duty to protect children also includes a social media ban for children under 16. Instead of a full social media ban, the Act lets some social media platforms get around the minimum age requirement. If the Commission decides a social media platform has “adequate safeguards” for protecting children, that platform does not need to put an age limit in place.
Duty to Act Responsibly
The duty to act responsibly involves different rules for social media services and AI chatbot services.
Social media platforms must take action to lower the risk that users will see harmful content on their site. They must also label “synthetic content,” such as AI-generated deepfakes, and allow users to to flag harmful content and block other users.
AI chatbot services must lower the risk that a chatbot produces harmful content. They must adopt emergency measures, including referring a user to a live crisis intervention service if the user says they intend to harm themselves or others. The Act also requires chatbot services to make sure that chatbots do not engage in harmful behaviours, such as misleading users into thinking they’re talking to a human being, manipulating users into forming a false emotional bond with the chatbot, or giving medical, legal, or other types of professional advice.
Duty to Make Certain Content Inaccessible
The duty to make certain content inaccessible requires social media platforms to make sure users cannot access content about sexually victimizing a child or revictimizing a survivor, or intimate content shared without consent (including deepfakes). This duty requires social media platforms to take down any of this harmful content within 24 hours.
Duty to Be Transparent
The duty to be transparent applies to all services that fall under the Act. This duty includes keeping any records that are needed to show whether a service is following its duties. Companies must also submit digital safety plans to the Commission and make them available to the public.
An imperfect solution?
While the evidence is clear that social media and AI chatbots cause harm to children and youth, some are concerned about the bill’s workings.
One concern is that the bill is broad and leaves many issues undecided. Maanit Zemel, an internet law and social media lawyer, says the bill “lacks detail,” such as the process for deciding whether a social media platform can be exempt from the minimum age requirement. Law professor Michael Geist created a list of 50 issues that the bill leaves open for the government and Commission to decide on later.
The Act may also affect young people’s fundamental rights. According to law professor Robert Diab, a full social media ban may infringe young people’s right to free expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If the law does infringe this right, the government must show that the law is justified under the Oakes test.
An age restriction also comes with privacy concerns. For platforms with an age requirement, users will need to verify their age, which means giving out personal information such as government-issued IDs.
Another key issue is whether the ban will be effective. Australia introduced a social media age restriction in December 2025, and recent evidence shows that many children under 16 still have social media accounts despite the ban. Some youth in Canada believe that Canada’s ban will be just as ineffective.
A flexible approach
Some supporters are optimistic about Canada’s approach.
The Canadian Medical Association says the bill will protect youth from the negative mental health outcomes caused by social media, and help curb AI-generated health misinformation.
Other supporters of the bill say it encourages technology companies to make changes to improve their platforms’ safety, and takes the right approach by focusing on design features and specific harms. UNICEF Canada also approves of the Canadian government taking a flexible approach instead of imposing a “blanket age ban.” However, UNICEF says the bill misses a key duty under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: getting input from young people. Under the UN Convention, the government has a duty to consult young people about the bill, given the impact it will have on their lives and fundamental rights.
Looking ahead
The House of Commons and the Senate must both approve the Safe Social Media Act before it passes into law. Even after the bill passes, putting the new laws into effect may take time. While many things about the bill are still unclear, there is no doubt that it addresses a pressing set of problems. These problems are new and quickly evolving, and no one has yet found an effective solution. Canada’s unique, flexible approach may be a first step in that direction.
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DISCLAIMER The information in this article was correct at time of publishing. The law may have changed since then. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of LawNow or the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta.
About Tiffany Yii
