The Canadian government introduced a digital safety bill on Wednesday that would ban social media for children under 16 \u200cwith exemptions for platforms that meet certain safety standards, months after Australia enacted the world’s first social media ban for young people.<\/p>\n
The bill also aims to make AI chatbots safer by setting up a digital regulator to establish safety standards, a government official said.<\/p>\n
Companies could face penalties of 3% of global revenue or \u200bup to C$10 million ($7.2 million), whichever is more, for failing to comply.<\/p>\n
\u201cSocial media platforms and AI chatbots are designed to \u200bcapture attention. They do not support healthy childhood development and have become a source of anxiety, isolation, \u2060depression and a range of other mental health challenges for many young Canadians,” said Marc Miller, minister of Canadian identity and culture.<\/p>\n
“This \u200blegislation will provide a safer environment for young Canadians and empower them to connect in-person, build friendships, focus in school, and learn real-world \u200bskills so they can thrive\u201d.<\/p>\n
The bill’s introduction in Parliament comes weeks after families affected by one of the country’s worst mass shootings sued OpenAI, alleging that the company knew the alleged killer was planning the attack on ChatGPT but did not warn police.<\/p>\n
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
In \u200bDecember, Australia became the world\u2019s first country to ban social media for children under 16. A month after its law was introduced, \u200bsocial media companies collectively deactivated the accounts of nearly 5 million teenagers.<\/p>\n
Government officials in a technical briefing said it could take a year for the \u200cbill to \u2060pass and 18 months to set up the digital regulator once it does.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Google, which owns YouTube, said the company is committed to working with the federal government to establish higher safety standards for all platforms, so parents have the confidence and control to choose better, safer online experiences for their children.<\/p>\n
Canada’s policy “would entail a more \u2060complex \u200bset of platform obligations,” he said. “Its aim is a redesign of the social media \u200becosystem to make it safer for children, whereas Australia’s law is about restricting access to the ecosystem”.<\/p>\n
“The scope is also broader since the Canadian law would tackle \u200bAI as well,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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