The B.C. government says it wants the federal government to take the lead on a social media ban for youth.
This comes after Manitoba’s premier recently announced plans to limit social media and chatbots for kids in his province.
“Both minister (Rick) Glumac and I have written letters to the federal government that we think sets a strong regulatory regime when it comes to social media and AI chatbots,” Attorney General Niki Sharma said on Friday.
“There are some clear things that we’re asking for.”
The province says it wants to see any federal legislation to address online harms include age-appropriate design standards, make compliance mandatory, establish oversight to ensure compliance and age-related restrictions when platforms cannot show they are safe for youth.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kniew said they are not waiting for the federal government.
Australia put a similar ban in place last December, but early reviews of the legislation are mixed, with as many as 70 per cent of people under the age of 16 saying they have found ways around the ban.
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Canadians do seem to support a similar ban.
An Angus Reid Institute poll released in March found that “banning those under 16 from platforms would be well received by the vast majority of Canadians,” with three-quarters (75 per cent) say they support a “full ban on social media use for anyone under the age of 16.”
Among parents with kids in the household, support is also strong at 70 per cent.
Carol Todd’s teenage daughter, Amanda, died by suicide in 2012 after being extorted by an online predator.
She’s now a prominent digital literacy advocate, but wonders if a youth social media ban is the answer.
“I see it as a bigger conversation, rather than one that just says we’re going to ban or restrict social media off our children,” Todd told Global News
The federal government has been working on its latest online harms bill for more than two years, trying to find the balance between protection and privacy.
But some people don’t support that work.
“Frankly, one of the worst things a government can do is go to that low-hanging fruit, or the perception of low-hanging fruit, jump in with bad legislation just to say look we did something,” Michael Geist, a professor at the University of Ottawa, said.
The province wants to see progress from Ottawa on this issue and if not, they say they could follow in Manitoba’s footsteps and chart their own course.
–with files from Ben O’Hara-Byrne
Orwell predicted all of this years ago.
THIS GROUP OTTAWA COULDN’T TAKE 10 MEN TO A CAMPFIRE, AND HAVE THEM PISS ON IT, TO PUT IT OUT !!! WHY ARE YOU ASKING SUCH AN OVERWHELMING TASK OF OTTAWA ?
More co mm un ist government overreach. This is all the needle, drugs and poverty party (NDP) know. Ban ban ban. Asking the corrupt lie beral government to help will turn it into YET ANOTHER multi billion dollar boondoggle hiring 10’s of thousands of high priced DEI employees AND it will STILL BE AN ABJECT FAILURE.
Its ok comrades. Food will be banned soon. MAID will become mandatory. Hold onto your butts. Max Maduro Carnage has only just begun the destruction of Canada in his quest to become Chinada.
Banning phones in school was a complete joke. Do you the union teachers in this province were willing to do any extra enforcement?
Nope.
I’ve a high school age son whose says everyone is still on them whenever they want. The teachers don’t seem to care at all.
Teachers that don’t care. That sums up the BCFT
Better to just let the Feds deal with it. Of course they will turn it into a money gulping bureaucratic train wreck but
the NDP would have to consult First Nations,give them partial ownership of the internet and the citizens computers ,then spend years and millions in court trying to reverse it.