Bill S-209

Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act

An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to pornographic material

This enactment makes it an offence for organizations to make pornographic material available to young persons on the Internet . Furthermore, it enables, among other things, a designated enforcement authority to take steps to prevent pornographic material from being made available to young persons on the Internet in Canada.

Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

moved that Bill S-209, An Act to restrict young persons’ online access to pornographic material, be read the second time and referred to a committee.

Madam Speaker, we know that the Internet gives us access to almost anything. With just a few clicks, we can watch a movie, learn a new skill on YouTube, find a new recipe, research any topic or talk to a friend down the street or even on the other side of the world. Within my own lifetime, the Internet has gone from something new to something that is fully integrated into our everyday lives.

The Internet is without a doubt a big part of everyday life for every generation, including our children. They use it to do their homework. They play games. They watch videos. They connect with their friends. However, the Internet also gives children access to things that they are not ready to see, understand or even process.

One thing that is readily available to kids is pornography. Research shows that children can be exposed to pornography online without ever even intending to look for it. They can come across it in an unintended search result. They can click on the wrong link. It can be shared by another child, or it can appear through an advertisement. Once a child sees it, we cannot assume they understand what they are seeing. They do not have the experience or maturity to understand what they are looking at, or what it means for a healthy relationship. Parents may not even know that this has happened.

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection says children as young as eight and nine can easily come across sexually graphic material online. An Alberta study found that one-third of adolescents in this study had first been exposed to pornography by the age of 10. Other research has reported exposure at even younger ages, including children as young as five.

Let us just sit with that for a moment and think about that. At five years old, a child is just beginning school. They are learning to read. They are learning how to make friends. They are learning about the world around them. They should not be exposed to pornography, and they certainly do not have the capacity to understand it.

Children are being exposed to pornography online, sometimes at a very young age. The graphic and often violent content is not appropriate for a child. Their brains are still developing, and they are learning how to understand relationships, emotions, boundaries and the world around them. When a child is exposed to pornography, they do not have the maturity to understand what they are seeing. They may start to believe that what they are watching is healthy, and it can shape their ideas about sex, relationships and how people should treat one another.

There is another concern. What might start as accidental exposure or curiosity can become a habit. A child may return to that content again and again. Over time, repeated use can become compulsive, and for some young people it can develop into an addiction. There is certainly evidence that compulsive consumption is a widespread and growing public health issue. One Canadian survey examined students from grade 7 to 11. Among the grade 8 students surveyed, 88% of boys and 72% of girls reported seeing sexually explicit content, and 35% of boys said they had seen pornography too many times to count.

To be clear, these are children. They are still developing their understanding of sex, relationships and what is healthy, yet some are already being exposed to pornography on a regular basis. This is not something we should ignore, because that repeated exposure is rewiring the brains of the kids who are consuming it. Over time, repeated exposure can shape what a young person comes to see as healthy. It can shape their expectations about sex and relationships, and those ideas do not simply disappear once a child turns 18.

What a young person sees while they are still developing can influence how they understand relationships later in life. We can see examples of this in the way that some harmful sexual behaviours have become normalized among young people. A recent article by sex neuroscientist Debra Soh examined the growing normalization of sexual choking among young people. She makes the case that pornography has played a role in making behaviour that was once clearly understood as dangerous seem normal or even expected in some relationships.

These harms can affect how young people understand sex, relationships and consent, and the consequences can extend beyond a child who is viewing the content. When harmful behaviours are normalized, there can be victims on the other side of those behaviours. Young women and girls can be affected by expectations placed on them by partners who have learned distorted ideas about sex and relationships. We need to think about the young people who may be pressured to accept behaviour because they have been told it is normal. We also need to think about those who may experience sexual violence or abuse as a result.

Protecting children from harmful content is not just about what they see on a screen. It is also about the kinds of relationships and expectations we want them to carry into adulthood, yet there are currently no safeguards in place to make sure children cannot easily access this content online. That is a disservice to our children.

Bill S-209 is a response to that lack of a safeguard. I am grateful to Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne for her persistence and dedication in addressing this issue and for her commitment to protecting children online. I share that commitment.

To be clear, the bill is very targeted. It would not ban pornography. What it would do is require commercial pornography websites to take responsible steps to make sure their content is not being viewed by children. If a website makes money by providing pornography, it should have a responsibility to help keep that content away from children. Bill S-209 would require these websites to use effective age verification or age estimation measures. In other words, if the content is intended for adults, there should be a reasonable way to make sure that the person accessing it is actually an adult.

This is about putting in age restrictions where ones should already exist. We have age restrictions for many things in the real world. One has to be a certain age to buy alcohol. One has to be a certain age to gamble. One has to be a certain age to purchase pornography. We expect businesses to follow these rules. Frankly, we should expect the same online. Children deserve that protection. That is what the bill would do, while also taking into account the privacy of Canadians. It is not a matter of protecting children or protecting privacy. We can and we should do both.

Bill S-209 includes safeguards to protect the personal information of Canadians while making sure that children cannot easily access pornography. The bill would put clear requirements in place for any age verification or age estimation method that is prescribed. The method must be highly effective. It must be operated by an independent third party. It must protect the privacy of users and their personal information. It can only collect and use information that is necessary to verify or estimate a person's age. Once the process is complete, that information must be destroyed.

The goal is to confirm that someone is old enough to access adult content. It is not to create a record of what Canadians are looking at online. It is certainly worth noting that Canada's Privacy Commissioner, Philippe Dufresne, has expressed support for Bill S-209 and welcomed the privacy protections included in the legislation.

When we are talking about children, there is another important part of this conversation that we cannot overlook, and that is parents. Parents have the primary responsibility for raising their children. They teach their children right from wrong. They set boundaries. They talk to their children about what is appropriate and what is not appropriate. Parents do everything they can to keep their children safe.

This legislation in no way undermines the authority of parents. It does not replace the role of parents. It does not tell parents how to raise their children. Instead, it gives parents another tool to help protect their children online, because the reality is that no matter how hard parents try, they cannot monitor everything their children see online. They cannot be there for every search, every click, every message and every video. Parents can use parental controls and other safeguards on their children's devices, and those tools can certainly help, but they cannot protect every child from coming across inappropriate content.

That is where this legislation can help. It would add another layer of protection. It would put responsibility on the companies that profit from providing pornography to make sure that children cannot easily access it. Parents should not have to carry that responsibility alone. They are already doing everything they can. This bill would simply give them another tool to help keep their children safe online.

When I was home in my riding over the summer, I spoke with many parents about this issue. The message I heard was very clear: Parents want to protect their children. They know they cannot monitor everything their children do online, and they see this legislation as a reasonable step that can help them do that.

It is widely understood that early exposure to pornography is harmful to children. After decades of widespread access to online pornography, we have research showing the negative impact that early and repeated exposure can have on young people, and we as legislators have a responsibility to act on what we know. That means putting reasonable safeguards in place, supporting parents and making sure commercial pornography companies have effective age restrictions in place to keep their content away from children.

Bill S-209 would do exactly that. It would create a barrier between children and pornography that does not currently exist. It would help prevent unintended exposure and make it more difficult for children to access this content. It would give parents another tool while recognizing that parents cannot do this alone, and it would do so while respecting the privacy of Canadians. This bill would not ban pornography. It would not replace parents. It would simply recognize that protecting children online is a shared responsibility.

Children deserve reasonable safeguards and guardrails to protect them from online pornography. Parents deserve the tools to help protect them, and Canadians deserve privacy protections. Bill S-209 would bring these priorities together. I hope that all members of this House recognize the urgency of this issue and support the protections that our children deserve.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I hope to speak to the member's bill a little later this afternoon.

I want to ask the member a question regarding the social media component to this. We know, for example, that there is a significant movement to put a limitation on children under 16 such that they cannot have social media accounts. Does the member have an opinion on that particular issue? Obviously, social media accounts often lead to a lot of pornography. I am very curious what her position would be on that.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

Mr. Speaker, we need to recognize what Bill C-34 is encapsulating. Bill C-34 specifically applies to regulated social media services and regulated chatbot services, so that is user-generated content. What Bill S-209 is targeting is pornographic content from online porn companies. They are two different things.

I believe there is a hole in Bill C-34 where this is not covered. Online porn companies are not covered in Bill C-34. Bill S-209 is a targeted piece of legislation that will close that hole.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, who is the other vice-chair of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.

I have had conversations with the senator, and our understanding is that the Liberals rejected the previous version of this bill, citing privacy and freedom of expression in particular. These were the arguments that led them to vote against it during the previous parliamentary session. Now, she has raised an interesting point regarding the opinion of Mr. Dufresne, Canada's Privacy Commissioner. He confirms that there have been improvements in the bill in terms of privacy protection.

I would like my colleague to reassure us on this point and, above all, to reassure the Liberals opposite that there have indeed been improvements since the last bill, so studying it in committee would be worthwhile.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

Mr. Speaker, we do sit together on HUMA, and I very much appreciate working with the member.

We know the Privacy Commissioner has endorsed this bill. There are specific provisions in section 12(2) that would ensure that whatever method is chosen needs to be highly effective, be operated by a third party organization, and maintain user privacy and protect personal information.

The fact that the Privacy Commissioner has endorsed this bill says leaps and bounds, because his job is to ensure that the privacy of Canadians is respected. For sure, I think this would be great to go to committee, where we can have a deeper dive on those conversations regarding Bill S-209.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Mr. Speaker, the journey of this bill started back in 2015 with Motion No. 47, which came before this Parliament and was unanimously passed. That caused a health committee report that recommended exactly what the bill before us would do. It has been over a decade since that report come out. Canada was kind of a first mover back then, but efforts have kind of stalled.

I wonder if the member could talk about what other countries have done in this regard.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

Mr. Speaker, it has been a very long time. It has been over 10 years that we have known this is an issue.

Not long ago, there was an article in The Globe and Mail, which I referred to in my remarks, about sexual strangulation derailing a generation of girls. This is how pornography is affecting children, the next generation. It is a distorted version of what relationships and sex are.

It is time this legislation passes so that we are able to move forward and take it to committee.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to Bill S-209 and the government's work to protect young people from online harms as technology evolves in front of us.

I also want to begin by thanking and recognizing Senator Miville-Dechêne for bringing this initiative to Parliament and for her continued work to better protect children online. I remember the previous iteration of this bill in the last Parliament. I enjoyed very much trying to see how we could learn from what she was seeking to put forward in that bill and how that might inform the work that we were doing.

It is very clear that ensuring young people are safe online is a priority we all share in the House. It is an important thing for us to keep top of mind. As the father of two young boys, it is something I certainly think about every day.

Let me say first that the government supports the objectives of Bill S-209. Children should not be able to access content, including pornographic content, that is inappropriate for their age online. Period. At the same time, our government understands that protecting children from pornographic content is not just about separating it from the protection of their personal information. Bill C-34, the safe social media act, and Bill C-36, the protecting privacy and consumer data act, seek to address both of these critical concerns thoughtfully and place them in the hands of a regulator that would be empowered to protect Canadians online. Indeed, much of what was in Bill S-209 previously has inspired some of this work.

Digital platforms play an important role in the lives of many young Canadians, helping them stay connected to family and friends, access educational resources and discover new interests. At the same time, young people are sometimes exposed to online content that is inappropriate for their age. Recognizing both the benefits of digital technologies and the need to better protect children online, the government introduced Bill C-34, the safe social media act, and Bill C-36, an act to enact the protecting privacy and consumer data act, to amend the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and to make amendments to other acts, in June 2026. Together, these initiatives establish clear rules that promote online safety, strengthen privacy protections and increase accountability and trust across the digital ecosystem.

Bill C-34 addresses directly the risks when children are exposed to pornographic content online. It would require operators of regulated services to implement age assurance measures to mitigate the risk that children would be exposed to adult content on their service.

Bill C-34 would also put strong protections in place to ensure that children's personal information is safeguarded, that it is destroyed once it is no longer needed and that any age verification or estimation measures do not unreasonably or disproportionately limit users' freedom of expression.

Young people can be harmed not only by the content they encounter online but also when their images are misused to create harmful deepfakes. We all know that generative AI has made this material easier to create and spread without consent. Our government is tackling this emerging threat by strengthening protections for victims and holding those responsible to account.

Our government has already taken strong action to address these issues through Bill C-16, the protecting victims act, which expands the Criminal Code definition of an “intimate image” to include sexualized deepfakes and ensures that those who generate, distribute or threaten to distribute such content are held accountable.

Bill C-34 seeks to build on this work by tackling these issues at their source before they have the chance to spread online. Under this bill, operators of regulated chatbot services would be required to put measures in place to mitigate the risk of a chatbot communicating harmful content, which includes generating non-consensual intimate images and content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor.

As technology continues to evolve, online safety and privacy are becoming increasingly interconnected. Protecting young people requires us to address both.

That is why, along with Bill C-34, the government introduced Bill C-36, which represents the most significant modernization of Canada's Privacy Act as it applies to the private sector in over 25 years. Bill C-36 would strengthen individual protections, specifically by recognizing privacy as a fundamental right, strengthening children's privacy and creating a strong right to delete or vanish, to protect the privacy and reputation of Canadians online. These are all challenges that did not exist when the current privacy legislation was enacted.

For children, this matters. Age verification generally relies on the use of personal information. Bill C‑34 sets out privacy safeguards that age verification measures must respect. Bill C‑36 strengthens protections for children's personal information more broadly.

Together, Bill C‑34 and Bill C‑36 would also create a permanent digital safety and privacy commission. The commission's mandate would be to promote online safety in Canada while protecting Canadians' personal information in the marketplace.

Bill C‑34 and Bill C‑36 set out these protections, which are backed by robust enforcement regimes. For example, under the protecting privacy and consumer data act proposed in Bill C‑36, the commission would have the authority to issue compliance orders or impose substantial administrative monetary penalties on regulated entities that fail to meet their obligations to protect Canadians' privacy.

The bill also requires the regulatory body to consider the best interests of children in all policy and enforcement decisions. This means stronger protections for children's data, clear rules for organizations that target or serve young users, and an ongoing commitment—

[The Deputy Speaker, Tom Kmiec]

The hon. member for Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake is rising on a point of order.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster—Meadow Lake, SK]

Mr. Speaker, I am a little concerned, because I understand we are to be debating Bill S-209 right now, and I am hearing about bills that are government bills and are being debated, and it is up to the government to call the calendar. We are debating Bill S-209. We are not debating Bill C-34 or Bill C-36.

[The Deputy Speaker, Tom Kmiec]

As members know, members have a wide latitude during their debate time to go on the subjects that they desire. I am sure the parliamentary secretary is getting back to Bill S-209, so I will let him complete his time.

[Taleeb Noormohamed, Liberal, Vancouver Granville, BC]

The fact is that the work done in the context of Bill S‑209, as well as the work that was done in the context of Bill S‑210 in the previous Parliament, is represented in these bills. If she had read both bills, she would know that, but such is life.

We believe that this model, that is, enforcement regimes grounded in expertise within a common digital regulatory body, provides a more effective way to address complex and cross-cutting issues involving privacy and digital safety, including age verification, the proliferation of synthetic content in digital spaces and the safety of children online, all of which are closely linked to the objectives of Bill S‑209.

The strengths of the government's approach become clear when we consider age assurance. Parliament's consideration of Bill S-209, to my colleague's comment, and its previous iterations has consistently highlighted the real privacy concerns associated with age verification and age estimation measures, especially when children's personal information is involved, which I am certain the member must care about. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has stated that age assurance can further the goal of creating a safer, more privacy-protective online environment for kids, but that careful attention must be paid to determining the most important appropriate means of verification.

Every age assurance requirement involves trade-offs. The more reliably a measure establishes a user's age, the more sensitive the information is that it tends to collect. Whoever sets and enforces that requirement is making a safety decision and a privacy decision at the same time. Bill S-209 would recognize that and require cabinet to ensure that any age assurance method it prescribes protects users' personal information.

I would submit the member opposite would be very happy to see this in our legislation, but those conditions would be applied by regulation and enforced by an existing federal institution that the bill does not designate, so I am curious how the member opposite would think this would actually be enforced. Under Bill C-34 and Bill C-36, these decisions would sit within a single body. The commission would have oversight of whether an operator is effectively protecting children, while also meeting the strong privacy protection requirements set out in Bill C-36.

Bill S-209, Bill C-34 and Bill C-36 all share a common concern to ensure that children are kept safe online. The government plan includes strong privacy protection and a robust plan for actually carrying these measures out. Bill S-209, while well intended, would leave it to cabinet regulation and an institution yet to be named to iron out all of these details. It is almost as if the opposition wants to put all that trust into cabinet, which is curious given its position on most anything.

Bill C-34 and Bill C-36 together are a strong plan for protecting our kids and their data online, and that has already been laid out.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, today I am speaking to Bill S-209.

The Bloc Québécois is in favour of studying this bill in committee. I want to say that from the outset. Bill S-209 incorporates the main provisions of Bill S-210. The Bloc Québécois voted in favour of Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne's Bill S-210 at second reading stage during the last Parliament, so we are being consistent.

The new bill is essentially the same as the old one. The most significant change is that the bill's legal definitions now refer to “pornographic material” rather than “sexually explicit material”. This terminology is more in keeping with its intended purpose than the previous version.

I would also like to thank my colleague for sponsoring this bill in the House. This is an issue I follow very closely as my party's critic on this matter, as vice-chair of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women and the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, and as one of the co-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group to End Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.

I have been contacted many times with evidence that the pornography industry has a negative impact on young people. That is why I will be speaking about this today, explaining how this bill differs from the previous version, reiterating the negative effects of this industry and discussing another bill that addresses this issue, specifically Bill C-34.

First, with respect to the current bill, pornographic material means:

with the exception of the material referred to in the definition of child sexual abuse and exploitation material in paragraph 163.‍1(1)‍(a) of the Criminal Code, any photographic, film, video or other visual representation, whether or not it was made by electronic or mechanical means, that

(a) shows the genital organs or anal region of a person engaged or depicted as engaged in explicit sexual activity; and

(b) is intended to cause sexual excitement.

In short, the definition is now limited to visual content. Bill S‑210, the previous version, also included audio and written material, but that is no longer the case. The current wording requires both explicit sexual activity and the intention to cause sexual excitement, which is narrower than the first reading version.

Otherwise, the bill's underlying principle remains the same: to make it harder for young people to access pornographic material by requiring pornographic websites to make sure only adults are accessing their site by instituting age verification mechanisms, since we know about that pornography can have damaging effects on children's healthy sexual development. We mentioned that we supported studying the bill in committee.

However, we do have a number of reservations, questions or concerns about the bill that we need to mention before sending it to committee.

First, we want to make sure that the age verification technologies protect users' security and privacy, especially since personal data may need to be collected for identity verification purposes. We just want to check that in committee. Second, we want to hear from experts about how effective and secure these age verification mechanisms are. Third, we want to hear from experts about the results and consequences of similar policies in other places around the world, such as states like Louisiana or Utah and Germany, where provisions like these have been implemented.

Bill S‑209 makes it an offence for organizations to make pornographic material available to young persons on the Internet. Furthermore, it enables a designated enforcement authority to take steps to prevent pornographic material from being made available to young persons on the Internet in Canada. To that end, it makes it an offence for organizations to make such material available to young people on the Internet for commercial purposes. The term “organization” has the same meaning as in section 2 of the Criminal Code, so it means a public body, body corporate, society, company, firm, partnership or association of persons that is created for a common purpose, has an operational structure and holds itself out to the public as an association of persons. This makes it possible to directly target commercial pornography distributors. There are even three defences.

Ultimately, what we are seeing is that the bill is motivated by a desire to better regulate online access to pornographic material through age verification, which is currently limited to a mere declaration. The digital landscape where our young people spend their time from childhood on unfortunately makes it easier to view degrading or even extreme content that normalizes the objectification of women and dominance relationships. This content, in the form of photos or videos, is shared on platforms owned by companies that do not meet any real requirements to verify that the people viewing it are adults.

It would be unrealistic to entrust the companies that distribute pornographic material with verifying the age of the person viewing the material. Instead, the bill would entrust this process to a third party, that is, an intermediary designated in the regulations. In addition, collection is limited to what is strictly necessary. This addition was recommended by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada during the study of Bill S‑210. Notices must therefore contain relevant information about the regime, and the organization's observations must be taken into account in deciding whether there is a violation and in setting the amount. The bill now includes two paths. One is the criminal path with legal action, proof beyond a reasonable doubt and a court-imposed fine. The other is the administrative path, which does not focus on access by a minor but rather on a failure to comply with a notice. It is faster and does not require criminal proceedings.

The thing is, the legislation merely establishes the framework. Everything else is left to the regulations. The act does not specify who imposes the penalties, review and appeal mechanisms, the limitation period, the recovery method and so on. Now that information technology makes pornographic content easy to distribute and more widely available, the government has a duty to restrict minors' access to such material as much as possible given its obscene nature and its harmful effects on young people's brain development. Self-regulation will not suffice. Bill S‑209 lays out broad principles governing age verification to prevent persons under the age of 18 from accessing pornographic content. Once passed, the bill will authorize regulations establishing the specific framework required to achieve that.

This bill also has major consequences for pornographic websites that fail to comply with its provisions, whether those sites are hosted in Canada or elsewhere. The government will be able to block sites that fail to comply with eventual age verification regulations. Everyone is aware that this bill is not a silver bullet. A minor who wants to view pornography illegally could use workarounds to bypass the age verification mechanisms, for example, a VPN. This bill may not be the solution for completely eradicating this scourge, but there is a good chance that it will help to further restrict minors' access to pornography, so the bill will achieve its objective.

I recognize that this is an important health issue, and the Bloc Québécois will always stand in support of measures that seek to protect the public and promote healthy living. Bill S-209 responds to a real concern within our communities. With the increase in femicides and violence against women, our society has a duty to restrict, to the greatest extent possible, access to this explicit content that promotes such violence.

Many civil society organizations and stakeholders, including the Association des pédiatres du Québec, support the initiative in Bill S‑209. This proposal transcends party lines, and we hope that all political parties represented in the House of Commons will support it. Let us not forget that the widespread availability of online pornography poses significant risks to minors, that the average age of first exposure to pornography is 12, and that one-third of children are exposed to it before the age of 10. Violent images can foster misconceptions about sex and specifically about consent, so they are a public health and safety concern.

The Standing Committee on the Status of Women has previously studied the trafficking of women, girls and gender-diverse people. While we cannot comment on the committee's subsequent findings, a number of speakers emphasized in their briefs that human trafficking is closely linked to pornography and coercive relationships between pimps and victims. By its very nature, Bill S‑209 will serve to mitigate the distribution of pornography on the Internet and protect victims from humiliating exposure to illegal material. Holding organizations accountable and imposing a new offence if they make such content available will give victims an additional tool to regain their dignity and punish their abuser.

Finally, on June 10, 2026, the Carney government introduced Bill C‑34, which enacts the—

[The Deputy Speaker, Tom Kmiec]

I have to interrupt the member. Members cannot use the Prime Minister's name in the House. Indeed, members must use his title.

I will now let the member for Shefford continue her speech.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government introduced Bill C-34. This is a revised and expanded version of the former Bill C-63, which dealt with online harms. Ottawa is requiring social media platforms and major pornography websites to verify each user's age. This is a complete 180, as the Liberals previously voted against the bill. I hope that, following committee consideration, we will be able to work together to avoid any overlap between these two bills and any duplication of effort.

In conclusion, it remains to be seen how we will examine them. I sincerely hope that this bill will go to committee, as it helps to protect minors' mental health and healthy development from the harmful effects of online sexually explicit material.