Australia is banning social media for those under 16. Is it a solution for Canada?

Australia’s new law banning social media for those under 16 will likely move the needle on Canadian efforts demanding more online protections for young people, experts say, though they call the “sledgehammer approach” an imperfect solution.

Passed Thursday, the new law will require TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media companies to take “reasonable steps” to keep users under 16 off their platforms or face fines.

The ambitious Australian legislation comes amid ongoing lawsuits in Canada and the U.S. accusing social media companies of harming young people, as well as proposed updates to online safety legislation in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. 

“We are seeing a rising groundswell of recognition that this technology is toxic to our kids,” said London, Ont.-based tech analyst and journalist Carmi Levy. “The momentum is certainly there for Canada to do something.”

However, Levy believes Australia — and countries that might consider following suit — will face significant challenges in implementing such a ban, with age-authentication, data collection and privacy concerns among some considerations to tackle.

“A ban is an imperfect solution. It is a simple solution to a very complex and nuanced problem,” he acknowledged, predicting nonetheless it will accelerate the battle between governments demanding more accountability from tech companies and the latter pushing back against regulation. 

“Doing something, even if it’s an imperfect something, is better than sitting around and doing nothing.” 

Social media companies should absolutely be doing more to protect young people, but imposing a blanket ban against them is “a sledgehammer approach” that risks making platforms even more attractive to youth, says Matt Hatfield, executive director of the Open Media, a digital rights group promoting equitable access to the internet.

“Forbidding young people from something isn’t usually a good way to discourage them from seeking that thing out,” he noted.

Canada’s proposed Online Harms Act, also known as Bill C-63, is currently in its second reading in the House of Commons and aims to address harmful content online. 

It calls for a new body to develop and enforce online safety requirements, which social media companies would be required to adhere to. Currently, platforms take a piecemeal approach to protecting young people, but if Bill C-63 passes, “there would be a single approach required across platforms,” said Hatfield, who is based in B.C.’s Gulf Islands.

“A regulator would develop a set of age-appropriate design expectations and every platform would be obligated to provide those, including being transparent about how they’re doing what they’re doing.”

Rather than a black-and-white ban like Australia’s, he wants to see a more nuanced approach that allows young Canadians to gradually learn about social media and adopt it at an appropriate age.

“It shouldn’t be an all or nothing thing,” he said. “They shouldn’t be completely off social media one day and sort of thrown to the wolves of social media the next.” 

Social media provides connection

Social media has become a default way for young people to search for information, discuss different topics, find resources and connect with others, and Bree McEwan, an associate professor at the University of Toronto, believes a blanket ban would endanger this. 

For a youth figuring out their identity while living in a small or isolated community, social media might be the only way to connect with like-minded peers. For others, social media may be how they’re engaging in civic discussions or activism. Taking away access to social media for young people also removes a lot of “very good things,” said McEwan, a professor in U of T’s department of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology.

If Canada and others decide to pursue a ban like Australia, she’s also worried it could discourage platforms from improving content moderation and other safety features in favour of simply relying on age verification that young people might easily circumvent.

A spokesperson for Meta, parent company to Instagram and Facebook, said in a statement to CBC News that Australia “rushed the legislation through while failing to properly consider the evidence.”

The new law “ignored the advice of the many mental health, online safety, and youth advocacy experts who have strongly opposed the ban,” a TikTok spokesperson noted in a separate statement. 

“The ban could see young people pushed to darker corners of the internet where no community guidelines, safety tools, or protections exist.” 

Overall, McEwan thinks a social media ban is too blunt a response for today’s complex situation. 

“We can just point the finger at technology and say … ‘We’re just going to fix it by banning it,’ ” she said, noting this approach won’t necessarily solve the problems young Canadians face and give them the support they need.

“It requires funding health services, mental health, education — and maybe that’s not as flashy as banning TikTok.”