{"id":576,"date":"2026-06-11T17:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=576"},"modified":"2026-06-11T18:29:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T18:29:55","slug":"digital-safety-minister-laments-we-are-failing-our-children-as-canada-mulls-social-media-ban-for-under-16s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=576","title":{"rendered":"Digital Safety: Minister laments &#8216;we are failing our children&#8217; as Canada mulls social media ban for under-16s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>*<strong><em>Marc Miller, Canada&#8217;s Culture Minister, justifies the country&#8217;s proposed ban on social media for under 16, stating &#8216;we are failing our children&#8217;&#8230; social media platforms and <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>\u200b<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>AI chatbots do not support healthy childhood development, and have become a source of anxiety, isolation, depression, and a range <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>\u200b<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>of other mental health challenges for several young Canadians<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gbenga Kayode | ConsumerConnect<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Government is seeking to ban social media accounts for children under 16 with a new bill in the North American continent.<\/p>\n<p><em>ConsumerConnect<\/em> reports Canada also wants to regulate Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots, with the establishment of a new industry regulator called the &#8220;Digital Safety Commission of Canada&#8221;.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"u3cldpnrro\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=596\">NCC unveils strategies to address increasing data demand, limited infrastructure capacity<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cNCC unveils strategies to address increasing data demand, limited infrastructure capacity\u201d \u2014 ConsumerConnect \" src=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=596&amp;embed=true#?secret=rhbXwpsCfy#?secret=u3cldpnrro\" data-secret=\"u3cldpnrro\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Canadian bill&#8217;s introduction in the parliament is reportedly coming after Australia December 2025 became the world&#8217;s first country to ban social media for children under 16.<\/p>\n<p>Following suit, the Canadian Government has introduced a legislation on digital safety that could prohibit children under the age of 16 from having social media accounts.<\/p>\n<p>The government introduced the bill in the North American country&#8217;s parliament Wednesday, June 10, 2026, though giving exemptions to companies that could prove their platforms meet certain safety standards for young and mature consumers.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian authorities this noted that criteria for what the exemptions would entail is slated to be announced at a later date, agency report said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Minister: &#8216;We are failing our children&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lamenting the health impact of early exposure of children to the use of social media platforms and \u200bAI chatbots, Marc Miller, Culture Minister of Canada, declared: &#8220;We are failing our children. Enough is enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Miller also said: &#8220;We need basic protection in place.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Highlights of Canada&#8217;s new digital safety bill<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Government&nbsp; new digital safety bill consists of seven categories of harmful content, report stated.<\/p>\n<p>These include the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Content that sexually victimises a child or revictimises a survivor<\/li>\n<li>Content that induces children to harm themselves<\/li>\n<li>Content used to bully a child<\/li>\n<li>Content that incites violence<\/li>\n<li>Content that foments hatred<\/li>\n<li>Terrorism or violent extremist content<\/li>\n<li>Non-consensual intimate images.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Despite the seriousness attached to the introduction of the new bill, report indicated that the proposed digital safety legislation could take a year to pass, Reuters report said, citing government officials at a technical briefing held in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Besides, the fresh bill provides for the establishment of a new industry regulator, christened the Digital Safety Commission of Canada, to enforce the new legislation and ensure compliance by all stakeholders in the digital ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>The government disclosed the new regulator would also set safety requirements for AI chatbots, including child-focused risk mitigation.<\/p>\n<p>Government officials equally said that once the parliament passes the legislation, it would take 18 months to fully establish the digital regulator.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, report has indicated that companies could face penalties of three percent of global revenue, or about 10 million Canadian Dollars (about \u20ac6.2 million, $7.2 million), whichever is higher, if they fail to comply with this new policy directive on digital safety for under 16 children.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Social media, AI chatbots &#8216;source of mental health challenges&#8217; for children?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In regard to further reasons for government&#8217;s proactive step to introduce new regulation, it was gathered that the proposed legislation came weeks after families affected by one of the country&#8217;s worst mass shootings February this year, filed lawsuits against OpenAI, and Sam Altman, the firm&#8217;s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).<\/p>\n<p>The affected families accused the company of knowing that the alleged killer was planning the attack on ChatGPT, but did not caution the \u200cPolice, according to report.<\/p>\n<p>Sequel to the reported mass shooting incident, Canadian Culture Minister Miller remarked: &#8220;Social media platforms and \u200bAI chatbots are designed to capture attention.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They do not support healthy childhood development and have become a source of anxiety, isolation, depression and a range \u200bof other mental health challenges for many young Canadians.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Minister further stated: &#8220;This legislation will \u200cprovide a safer environment for young Canadians and empower them to connect in-person, build friendships, focus in school, and learn real-world skills so they can thrive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>*Marc Miller, Canada&#8217;s Culture Minister, justifies the country&#8217;s proposed ban on social media for under 16, stating &#8216;we are failing our children&#8217;&#8230; social media platforms&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"Photo: Samuel Boivin\/NurPhoto\/Picture Alliance","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"default","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybermalls","category-highlights"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Social-Media-Ban-for-Children2-in-Canada-cc.png",672,365,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Social-Media-Ban-for-Children2-in-Canada-cc-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Social-Media-Ban-for-Children2-in-Canada-cc-300x163.png",300,163,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Social-Media-Ban-for-Children2-in-Canada-cc.png",672,365,false],"large":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Social-Media-Ban-for-Children2-in-Canada-cc.png",672,365,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Social-Media-Ban-for-Children2-in-Canada-cc.png",672,365,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Social-Media-Ban-for-Children2-in-Canada-cc.png",672,365,false]},"author_info":{"info":["ConsumerConnect"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?cat=11\" rel=\"category\">Cybermalls<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?cat=20\" rel=\"category\">Highlights<\/a>","tag_info":"Highlights","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":629,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions\/629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}