TORONTO – The internet presents too many dangers and pitfalls for kids: on the one hand, excessive use can jeopardize their physical and mental health, causing anxiety, depression, loneliness, and even self-harm; on the other, the web is a veritable jungle where young boys and girls, and children, risk being exposed to age-inappropriate content or, in the worst (but not rarest) scenario, becoming the target of cyberbullies or online predators.
And since the so-called “web giants” seem unconcerned about such an alarming phenomenon, a group of Canadian parents has decided to take the lead and launch a series of initiatives calling for new regulations that prevent minors under 16 from accessing social media. A volunteer from “Unplugged Canada,” the group that launched the awareness campaign to ban social media for those under 16, spoke about this on CTV‘s “Your Morning” on Monday (here CTV’s article about it). “In the real world, you can’t go into an R-rated movie or buy addictive products like cigarettes…” Robin Sherk told CTV. Online, however, what are the limits? There aren’t any.
For this reason, “Unplugged Canada,” an association founded by Jenny Perez in 2024, which has also been joined by doctors and educators, (here the website), is now working with federal legislators to promote the issue, including the promotion of alternative devices like the “wisephones” – built with no social media, internet browser, or access to other apps – and a petition officially sponsored by West Vancouver MP Patrick Weiler: the petition has garnered signature across Canada, from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia, and it will be presented to Parliament in the coming days.
The issue, as Robin Sherk explained to CTV, is not just about parental supervision, but also about the design of the platforms.
“They’re designed to catch and hook your attention… the average teenager spends three hours a day on social media. In Ontario, one in five spends five hours or more a day” she said. That level of exposure, she added, is linked to anxiety, depression, loneliness and even self-harm – while also cutting into sleep, exercise and other offline activities such as studying or, simply, real (in person) social relationships.
Existing research on this topic has already confirmed this with data, such as studies conducted in 2023 by Western University (here a CTV‘s article about it) and in 2024 by a group of university researchers who examined data from a 2020 International Food Policy Study involving over 12,000 adolescents aged 10 to 17 in Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States (here the research).
In recent years, the federal government has introduced several bills aimed at combating online harm and digital safety, although few have been enacted into law. The Online Harms Act (Bill C-63, here a CTV’s article about it) was introduced earlier this year to combat cyberbullying, child exploitation, and extremist content. Another bill, Bill C-412 (Protecting Children in the Digital Age Act, here), would go further, requiring platforms to prioritize children’s well-being through safer design. But according to “Unplugged Canada”, more can, and must, be done.