Question Period Note: Safe Social Media Act (Bill C-34)

On June 10, 2026, the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages introduced Bill C-34, entitled “An Act to enact the Digital Safety Act and the Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts” (Safe Social Media Act).

• Ensuring persons in Canada, particularly children, are protected online is a collective responsibility and a priority of the Government.
• Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, is an essential step forward in ensuring the safety and well-being of Canadians on digital services.
• The Act would strengthen protections against online harms and enhance accountability for digital services, including expectations for social media and artificial intelligence chatbots. It establishes the Digital Safety Commission of Canada, who will set clear rules for platforms and provide support for users and victims.

• Social media platforms can be used to threaten, intimidate, bully, and harass people. Four in 10 Canadians are exposed to online hate on a monthly or weekly basis. Canadians are overwhelmingly in favour of regulating online platforms to improve safety and increase accountability. In the Dais Survey of Online Harms in Canada 2025, 69 percent of respondents indicated that they believe the Government should intervene to require online platforms to act responsibly and reduce the amount of harmful content on their platforms. According to a recent Leger opinion poll, 77 percent would support the Government taking a tough enforcement approach with respect to regulating social media platforms and AI tools.
• Several governments in other jurisdictions, such as Australia, the European Union, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, have proposed or enacted legislation that imposes obligations on online platforms to restrict certain forms of content and activity.
• In February 2024, the Government introduced Bill C-63 to reduce exposure to harmful content and defined seven categories of harmful content. Bill C-63 died on the Order Paper when Parliament was prorogued in January 2025. In March 2026, the Government reconvened the Expert Advisory Group on online safety to seek the group’s expertise and advice on a limited and targeted set of issues that have emerged since the last consultation due to significant technological changes including AI-related issues.
• On June 10, 2026, the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages introduced Bill C-34, entitled “An Act to enact the Digital Safety Act and the Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts” (Safe Social Media Act).
• Part 1 of the Bill, the Digital Safety Act, would establish new safety requirements for social media services and AI chatbot services. The Act requires these services to identify risks of harm on their platforms, adopt measures to address certain risks, implement safety-focused and age-appropriate design features, make user guidelines available, provide tools such as blocking and flagging, and submit transparency reports called Digital Safety Plans.
• The Act specifically targets seven types of harmful content: intimate content communicated without consent: content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor; content that induces a child to harm themselves; content used to bully a child; content that foments hatred; content that incites violence; and terrorism or violent extremism content.
• Regulated services, including social media services and AI chatbot services, are subject to the core Duty to Protect Children. This duty requires regulated services to implement design features to make their services safer for children.
• Social media services, including livestreaming and user-uploaded adult content services, will have two additional duties: a Duty to Make Certain Content Inaccessible and a Duty to Act Responsibly.
• AI chatbot services will also be subject to a Duty to Act Responsibly, tailored to chatbot services, which will require them to: (1) mitigate the risk of the chatbot communicating harmful content; (2) implement emergency measures in crisis situations; and (3) mitigate the risk that the chatbot will engage in harmful behaviour.
• Regulated services will also be required to implement age-appropriate protections and safeguards for younger users. For social media services, the government intends to implement a 16-year-old minimum age requirement for having accounts. The Commission may grant an exemption to a social media service if they have established and maintained sufficient safeguards for children on their platform.
• Part 2 of the Bill, the Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act establishes a new Digital Safety Commission of Canada to administer the framework and to help foster a culture of online safety in Canada.
• The bill is also informed by previously undertaken policy work and extensive consultations on online harms, including engagement with victims and survivors, civil society organizations, Indigenous partners, experts, industry, and Canadians. Previous engagements include consultation, expert workshops, roundtables, Citizens’ Assembly focused on democratic expression and protecting youth online, have also informed the proposed approach.
• Initial reactions have focused on both industry engagement and strong support from child health and youth-focused organizations. Technology companies have signaled a willingness to engage: Google said it is “committed to working with the federal government to establish higher safety standards for all platforms,” while Meta said it wants “safe, positive online experiences for young people” and is assessing the bill. Medical and child-focused voices have welcomed the legislation as an important step toward greater accountability. Children First Canada said it “shifts the burden to where it belongs” by putting responsibility on social media companies, while UNICEF Canada called it a “thoughtful first step” and urged a duty to consult young people. The Canadian Medical Association said the bill makes Canada “a global leader in digital safety,” and SickKids’ Dr. Charlotte Moore Hepburn called it an important response to parents’ concerns.

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