Canada’s culture minister on Wednesday introduced legislation that would ban children under 16 from having social media accounts and require AI chatbot services to limit production of harmful content.
The proposed “Digital Safety Act” makes Canada the latest in a wave of countries moving to crack down on social media platforms over concerns of harm to children.
“We have seen the very serious consequences that online harms can have…The safety of children cannot be an afterthought,” said Culture Minister Marc Miller in a statement announcing the proposal.
The legislation would ban social media accounts for children under 16 years old, the statement said, adding that there would an exemption “pathway” for companies “if they can demonstrate that they have put in place sufficient safeguards for children.”
In addition to the social media ban, it would also regulate increasingly ubiquitous AI chatbots by requiring companies to “mitigate the risk of the chatbot communicating harmful content.”
Companies
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