Canada introduces legislation requiring social media and AI chatbots to prioritize child safety
The Canadian government introduced Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, on June 10. The legislation would require social media services and AI chatbots to design their platforms with child safety as a core requirement rather than an afterthought.
Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Marc Miller introduced the bill, which establishes new accountability standards for online platforms. Current laws address harms after they occur. This legislation shifts the burden to platforms to prevent harm before it happens.
Age restrictions and design requirements
The bill would prevent children under 16 from creating accounts on social media services. Platforms could seek exemptions if they demonstrate sufficient safeguards for younger users.
Regulated services must identify and mitigate risks on their platforms. They would need to reduce children's exposure to harmful content and high-risk interactions through design choices.
Services must apply labels to synthetically generated content and provide accessible ways for users to report harmful material and block other users.
Seven categories of harmful content
The legislation targets specific content types:
- Content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor
- Intimate content shared without consent, including deepfake sexual images
- Content that induces a child to self-harm
- Content used to bully a child
- Content that foments hatred
- Content that incites violence
- Terrorism or violent extremism content
Platforms must make the first two categories inaccessible in Canada. These represent the most serious harms, the government said.
AI chatbot-specific requirements
AI chatbot services face tailored obligations. They must mitigate the risk of communicating harmful content and engaging in harmful behavior. Services must be transparent about reporting thresholds in crisis situations, such as when a user indicates intent to harm themselves or others.
New regulatory body
The bill establishes a Digital Safety Commission of Canada to enforce the legislation. The independent regulator would audit compliance, issue compliance orders, and impose penalties on services that fail to meet obligations.
The Commission would also collect and administer user complaints about content violations, conduct research on global best practices, and develop educational resources for the public.
Regulated services must submit publicly disclosed Digital Safety Plans describing how they identify, assess, and address risks.
Why the government acted now
Police services reported 16,905 incidents of online child sexual exploitation in 2024, a 347% increase since 2014. One in four youth aged 12 to 17 reported experiencing cyberbullying in 2019.
Cybervictimization is linked to suicidal ideation and mental health problems among young Canadians. The Canadian Medical Association and pediatricians at SickKids said they witness rising rates of anxiety, depression, and self-harm connected to platform design features engineered to maximize engagement.
The government consulted victims and survivors, civil society organizations, Indigenous partners, experts, and industry before drafting the bill.
What this means for government workers
If you work in government policy, compliance, or digital safety, understanding AI for Government and Generative AI and LLM technology will help you implement and oversee these new requirements. The legislation applies to AI chatbot services operating in Canada, making technical literacy essential for enforcement and guidance.
Your membership also unlocks:
