Statement on Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act

Public consultation · Bill C-34, The Safe Social Media Act · Department of Canadian Heritage · October 2026

In June 2026, the Government of Canada introduced Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act. The bill would create a new Digital Safety Commission of Canada, require online services to act responsibly and protect children, set a minimum age of 16 for social media accounts and introduce new obligations for AI chatbot services.

MediaSmarts welcomes the bill’s core premise: online harms are shaped not only by individual behaviour, but by how digital services are designed, and the companies that build these systems should be responsible for the risks they create. We particularly welcome the creation of an independent Digital Safety Commission.

What is more important to us is that Bill C-34 is not simply a ban. By allowing services to earn an exemption if they can show their products are safe for children, the bill shifts the question from when young people should be allowed on social media to how social media can be designed safely for them.

Drawing on 30 years of research and education with children, youth, parents/caregivers and educators, and recognizing that the minimum age requirement is likely to move forward, our statement focuses on implementation: how to make sure the bill delivers real, lasting benefits for young people and their families.

Our position: The success of a minimum age requirement will depend on what surrounds it. That means strong safety-by-design obligations that keep platforms investing in young Canadians’ safety, privacy-protective age assurance, support for the parents and caregivers who will implement the rules at home, meaningful youth engagement and digital media literacy as a core pillar of the framework.

Key Recommendations:

Design for well-being, not engagement. Age-appropriate design standards should target engagement-optimizing features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, streaks and algorithmic amplification. Young people’s accounts should default to the most private settings, and young people should have meaningful control over their feeds.
Make the exemption pathway a real incentive for safer design. Exemption criteria should be rigorous, public and regularly reassessed, and developing this should be an early priority for the Commission.
Keep protecting young people after 16. Strong safety-by-design obligations should apply to 16- and 17-year-olds, and Canadian youth should get protections at least equal to those platforms offer in other jurisdictions.
Protect privacy in age assurance. Services should use the least intrusive effective method and offer multiple options, so no one must provide government ID or biometric data to get access.
Support parents and caregivers. Age restrictions are legislated nationally but implemented at home. Families need funded, plain-language, multilingual supports for understanding the rules, building healthy tech habits and keeping communication open.
Set clear rules for AI chatbots. Regulations should name manipulative tactics specific to conversational AI, require persistent reminders that users are talking to an AI tool, ensure crisis protocols work and protect children’s conversations from use in advertising, profiling or model training.
Make digital media literacy a core function of the Commission. It should be an explicit statutory duty with dedicated, multi-year funding, delivered in partnership with established organizations and connected to a National Strategy for Digital Media Literacy.
Design with young people, not just for them. The Commission should establish a standing, compensated youth advisory council and consult young people on key regulations using youth-appropriate methods.
Make transparency and recourse work for youth. That means broader researcher access to platform data, plain-language Digital Safety Plans, easy-to-use reporting tools and youth-friendly, trauma-informed complaints processes.

Related policy work

Submission to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada on the Children’s Privacy Code (2025)
Submission to the Government of Ontario on the proposed regulation under the Enhancing Digital Security and Trust Act (2026)
Open Letter to the Government of Canada calling for a National Strategy for Digital Media Literacy, endorsed by more than 40 organizations and experts (January 2026)
Op-ed in The Globe and Mail on Canada’s minimum age requirement for social media (2026)

For more information about our policy work, contact [email protected]