- Proposed legislation aims to protect youth, banning social media for children under 16.
- Age verification responsibilities remain unknown, raising concerns about user privacy and security.
- Companies that don’t comply could face penalties that reach 3% of global revenue or up to 10 million Canadian dollars.
- Legislation suggests creating a Digital Safety Commission for enhanced compliance and victim support.
- Other countries are initiating similar measures to restrict minors’ access to social media.
The Canadian government joined a host of countries proposing new legislation to protect children from social media. The proposed legislation, introduced Wednesday, would ban children under 16 from social media platforms, including sites like Snapchat and Instagram, at least temporarily.
The Safe Social Media Act still requires parliamentary approval but would allow most social media platforms to attain exemptions if they meet requirements that have not been determined yet. Those requirements would be created following the passage of the bill.
Platforms like adult pornography sites cannot seek exemptions, and the age limit ban would not apply to artificial intelligence chatbots or game platforms like Roblox.
“More and more kids are suffering from anxiety, depression, self-harm and exploitation,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a social media post Wednesday. “To keep our kids safe, we have to ensure that our laws keep up with technology.”
Marc Miller, the Canadian culture minister, told reporters the law would likely apply to companies including Meta Platforms and Snapchat, though they aren’t explicitly named in the proposal. Companies that fail to comply would face penalties of up to 3% of their global revenue or 10 million Canadian dollars (roughly $7 million), whichever is greater, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Government officials said young people would be allowed on online platforms that meet safety standards, which will be defined by the regulator, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“The safety of children can’t be an afterthought,” Miller said. “We need basic protection in place so every child in this country can be safe on platforms they use every day.”
However, the law does not specify how social media companies must verify a user’s age. Right now, that decision would be left up to the regulator, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Should social media companies or app stores verify a user’s age?
The opportunity for companies to introduce their own age verification processes is raising concerns for Meta.
A spokesperson for Meta said the company was looking into the details of the proposed bill, according to the Financial Post.
In a statement, the spokesperson noted that any regulations should apply equally across all apps teens use and expressed concern that leaving the age verification up to individual platforms could impact the privacy and security of users and the effectiveness of age requirements, advocating for the age verification to be conducted at the app store or operating system level, according to the Financial Post.
“Social media bans are counterproductive, but we are encouraged that the government appears to recognize” online safeguards can be provided to teens, the statement continued.
The Canadian bill would also require AI companies to find ways to direct users who threaten to harm themselves or others to appropriate resources, though they wouldn’t be required to report the behavior to law enforcement, according to the Canadian government.
Miller added that age limits would not apply to chatbots because the risks they pose to young people are not as well studied as the harms of social media, according to The Wall Street Journal.
If passed, the proposed legislation would create “an independent Digital Safety Commission to enforce regulations, ensure compliance, make online services safer for children and support victims of online harms,” according to Canada’s government website.
In the U.S., the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, prohibits companies from collecting personal data from children under 13 without parental consent. Several U.S. states have introduced laws requiring parental approval for minors’ social media use, though they face legal challenges on free speech grounds, according to Fox News.
Global restrictions on social media
Canada joins a growing list of nations implementing or considering government restrictions on social media use for minors.
Australia was the first country to pass such legislation, banning social media for youth under 16 in December 2025. The ban includes platforms like TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, according to Reuters.
Other countries like the United Kingdom, China, Denmark, France, Austria, Brazil, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey have also begun or implemented their own restrictions on tech and social media for minors.
Tech industry restrictions from social media platforms including TikTok, Facebook and Snapchat say people need to be at least 13 to sign up, according to Reuters.
While many governments are making efforts, they have faced opposition from tech companies and civil society groups that say identity verification steps amount to surveillance and introduce risks that personal data could be hacked, according to The New York Times.