B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma says she is urging the federal government to limit social media access for minors by introducing similar restrictions to those enacted in Australia last year.
Australia banned young people under the age of 16 from holding a social media account, which is defined as an electronic service designed to enable online social interaction, allow end-users to interact with some or all of the other end-users, and permit end-users to post material.
Sharma said science is beginning to come to a consensus that social media harms young minds and can lead to high anxiety and other problems.
“Parents are crying out for there to be some government intervention related to this,” she said on Monday, March 30.
She said the sector can no longer be relied upon to self-regulate.
“There needs to be actual legislative standards that are related to protecting vulnerable people and young users,” she said. “And there needs to be age-related restrictions that help to say what’s safe and what isn’t based on an age category.”
Sharma added that she thought any new rules brought in also must have “teeth” to monitor what is happening on the platforms. She also wants a reporting requirement included to ensure companies must disclose incidents, such as when OpenAI banned the alleged Tumbler Ridge shooter for online activity, but did not report to police until after the shooting.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met with Premier David Eby about this, promising changes and an apology. Altman agreed to help design a new regulation to create a reporting requirement.
But none of this is for the province to do, Sharma said.
“We just don’t have the same tools as the federal government,” she said, “specifically when it comes to these really big platforms.”
She also acknowledged implementation challenges with the Australian system and is unsure whether 16 is the best age limit to set, saying that Canada is in a good position to watch and learn at this stage.
“I think 16 and under with what Australia did is a model, but I leave it to experts to say exactly what they think,” she said.
Sharma said she met with her federal counterparts last week and that she hopes to see action by the end of the year.
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