The Safe Social Media Act, Bill C-34, would make platforms accountable for the serious harm their products cause to children. It's a real step forward. With your voice, we can make it stronger and get it passed.
Canadian kids are exposed to exploitation, bullying, and content designed to harm them — every day, on platforms they use for hours at a time. This isn't an accident. And it isn't getting better on its own.
1 in 3
Adolescents report unhealthy psychological symptoms from social media use
Public Health Agency of CanadaTHE CAUSE
Around 2016, platforms shifted from showing posts in order to feeds driven by algorithms designed to maximise one thing: the time you spend on them. That single design decision turned communication tools into engagement machines — and children became their most valuable, and most vulnerable, users. More than 70% of the most popular platforms use children's information to make money. The longer a child stays online, the more data is captured — so the incentive is to keep them there, not to keep them safe.
Platforms don't show children what they asked to see — they show what the algorithm predicts will keep them watching longest. That means progressively more extreme, emotional, or distressing content, because those posts drive higher engagement. The platform optimises for time-on-screen, not for the child's wellbeing.
This is a design choice, not a side effect. The algorithm can be tuned differently — platforms choose not to.
72M
Data points collected on a child before they turn 13 — by technology companies whose business model depends on keeping them online.
— 5RIGHTS, DISRUPTED CHILDHOOD: THE COST OF PERSUASIVE DESIGN
Amanda was twelve when a man online, pretending to be a teenage boy, recorded her on a webcam. She was fifteen when she died. He continued victimizing her for over two years, and targeted other young girls around the world. Only Amanda died, but I know the others carry the trauma for life.
Amanda’s story is too often told as the work of one predator. His actions caused immense harm, but her experience also exposes the environments where that harm was allowed to grow. Features that make it easy to connect, share and stay anonymous also make it easier to find, manipulate and repeatedly contact a child.
What is hardest is not that she was victimized, but that she was never given a chance to escape it. The places she went for friendship had too few safeguards for a child facing relentless harassment.
Carol Todd, Amanda’s mom
RESEARCH
What if platforms were designed to stop predatory behaviour before children were harmed? What if harmful content triggered intervention, instead of relying on children to report abuse over and over? What if intimate images of minors were detected and removed before they spread? What if accounts targeting children faced real verification and accountability?
Safer design means building protection into the product from the start, with defaults and systems that reduce harm rather than leaving children and families to carry the burden alone.
01
Autoplay and infinite scroll are off by default.
02
Alerts are limited, not timed to pull kids back at their most vulnerable moments.
03
No direct messages from unknown adults, and no livestreaming for minors.
04
Location sharing and online status are off unless a parent turns them on.
05
Like, follower, and reaction counts are hidden for minors.
06
Appearance-altering and photo-editing tools are off by default.
THE SOLUTION
On June 10, 2026, the Government of Canada introduced Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act. Canada is proposing to hold platforms responsible for how they are designed.
Every regulated platform must build in design features that make their products safer for kids.
The bill proposes a minimum age of 16 for social media accounts, but a platform can be exempted if it proves it has strong safeguards for children. The point isn't to lock kids out — it's to make platforms safe.
Social media services must make two kinds of content inaccessible: material that sexually victimizes a child, and intimate images shared without consent, including sexual deepfakes.
Platforms must reduce the risk that all users are exposed to harmful content, label AI-generated content, and give people clear ways to flag harm and block others.
Chatbot services must reduce harmful content, step in during crisis situations, and guard against manipulative or dangerous behaviour — a direct response to tragedies involving AI companions.
Every regulated platform must publish a Digital Safety Plan showing how it is meeting its obligations.
The Digital Safety Commission can set standards, audit platforms, order compliance, and penalize companies that don't follow the rules.
THE CAUSE
Pediatricians, children's hospitals, child-safety experts, and families who have lived through the worst of what happens online. We don't agree on everything — but we agree on this.
Meet the coalition →
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