Evidence of meeting #19 for Canadian Heritage in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was children.
A recording is available from Parliament.
High School Counsellor, Saskatoon Public Schools
Most are not.
I'm the mother of four daughters. My oldest child is 33. She went through high school when MSN first came in. Honestly, since then, our school resource officers will tell us all the time that the majority of our issues are coming from online behaviour. It happens outside of school, and then it gets brought into the schools. That's why schools are so intertwined in all of these things. Dealing with kids and the fallout of stuff that's happening online is a daily occurrence.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon South, SK
On regulations, what would you like to see from us as legislators?
High School Counsellor, Saskatoon Public Schools
Certainly, we'd like to see platforms, when we approach them, to take down images. Right now, the only way we're able to get images and harmful things taken down quickly is by investigating and finding the perpetrator, and then getting that person to take them down.
When we've reached out to platforms because of privacy laws and those kinds of things, they circumvent the responsibility for removing images or false or fake accounts. That would be one, for sure.
Also, 100% we need age verification, just based on children's brain development. Kids under the age of 16 don't have the capacity to manage.... As Tiana was saying, these platforms are not designed for children; they were designed for adults. Now we're asking eight- and nine-year-olds to navigate that, and it's really scary.
The other piece is that we can teach them how to be better online and recognize when there are harms coming. In saying that, I know this is addictive. The kids are addicted. A lot of kids are being bullied through Snapchat and they can't stop looking.
The reality is that we can't put it in the kids' hands. We have to help support.... I think we need to enmesh the two—teach them how to be good citizens and how to be better at being online. We also need to protect them by putting in some significant measures, and I think age is a huge one.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lisa Hepfner
No, I'm sorry. You're well over time.
It's interesting, though, that privacy rules supersede safety rules. That's what I took away from that.
Mr. Ntumba, you have five minutes.
Liberal
Bienvenu-Olivier Ntumba Liberal Mont-Saint-Bruno—L’Acadie, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Tessier-Bouchard, in your speech, you said that 66% of the young people in your organization said they were willing to advise the government or elected officials as a whole. We are talking about approximately 17,000 people.
Today we are looking at the way things are going in the world. We were just talking about social media. By way of a quick comparison, I would say that it seems like real life is being copied on social media.
Let me explain. Today, some influencers pay to follow people who do things online that may be questionable. In real life, they are like sugar daddies. It's all the same, but under a different name.
I am the father of four children and I very much like your platform. How can we encourage young people to take an interest in reliable sources of information in a context where influencers dominate their attention?
Editor, Les As de l'info, Les Coops de l'information
For children, it's a little easier because parents are interested in what they consume online. Sometimes we go through the parents. We also go through schools a lot. We also run information literacy workshops with the Quebec Centre for Media and Information Literacy, or CQEMI. Journalists visit classrooms and play games and conduct investigations with children to help them spot misinformation.
Obviously, it's easier to reach children than teenagers. Teenagers are already on social media, they already have their habits, they already have an algorithm that has been established. It's definitely harder to reach them. However, by employing people who have charisma, who speak to them frankly in a non-pedagogical language, I think we can reach them.
HugoDécrypte, which is very popular in France and has over one million subscribers, recently arrived in Quebec. The channel already has some 130,000 subscribers in Quebec.
This shows us that there is interest and that we can do something for this age group. Most of HugoDécrypte's work targets teenagers and young adults.
It also shows us that, unfortunately, we are not there. The French end up dominating our market because we don't have the means to do what they do. There is even a sales team that comes to Quebec to seek advertising revenue for HugoDécrypte and then brings it back to Europe.
It's great that HugoDécrypte exists. We are not yet in a position to take that place. Unfortunately, we haven't taken it yet.
Liberal
Bienvenu-Olivier Ntumba Liberal Mont-Saint-Bruno—L’Acadie, QC
Earlier, my colleague Mrs. Thomas spoke about what Australia has done recently with regard to digital identity, namely prohibiting online access for young people under the age of 16. I wonder if we should adopt such an approach.
In your opinion, are we talking about having a real digital identity to authenticate individuals and their age? You work with minors. Could this approach also make it possible to better regulate these platforms in the future?
Editor, Les As de l'info, Les Coops de l'information
Maybe. You have four children. When children are forbidden from doing something and suddenly it's within their reach, they tend to go overboard. If they're not allowed to eat junk food and there's junk food on a buffet table, children will, to put it bluntly, gorge themselves at the buffet.
Yes, we can block access. That said, it's essential to supervise them. We also need to try to influence algorithms or be able to take the necessary steps to ensure that certain sites are not viewed by a specific target audience. I get the impression that this is already happening. I looked into it, and I was told that it's fairly easy to do.
Should we ban this access? I'm not convinced. It will cost a lot of money and take a lot of resources. Perhaps we should take some of those resources and put them into supporting teenagers and children in developing their digital identity.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lisa Hepfner
Thank you.
Mr. Diotte is next for five minutes.
You have the floor, sir.
December 8th, 2025 / 5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Kerry Diotte Conservative Edmonton Griesbach, AB
Thanks, Madam Chair.
Ms. Sharifi, first of all, thanks for the work you do for the Center for Exploitation Education.
You told this committee that you believe kids under the age of 16 should not be on social media. Can you tell us why you believe that and what you recommend as wider solutions to protect kids who are on social media?
Chief Executive Officer, Center for Exploitation Education
When we're talking about social media or access to the Internet, it's not something that happens at a certain designated time. Kids are online right now 24-7. It's just the online world and in-person world. They are intertwined. There is the idea that we can monitor our kids online, or we can teach them, and this is going to be enough.
As somebody who educates kids, I see the effect of education. It is effective. I'm not denying that. However, by not creating restrictions, especially age restrictions, we're putting the onus on parents. As an educator, I know education is effective. As a parent, I think it's not enough. If you are parenting a child, you're not around 24-7. My child is five. I gave her my phone for two seconds, and she ordered 12 banana loaves from Starbucks. The control and monitoring are just not there.
One other thing, as Stacy pointed out, is that we know kids have not developed their prefrontal cortex. Yes, they can critically think. Yes, they should have agency. Yes, they are brilliant. However, they are still youth. We cannot expect them to be able to deal with what comes with social media use.
We can teach them the signs of grooming. Again, it's effective. However, at the same time, if children have the need for belonging, attention, love, acceptance and community—which they all do—they're still vulnerable regardless of however much information and knowledge they have.
It's just the nature of the way these platforms work. Are we going to ask all of the platforms—and are they going to oblige—to put safety over freedom of speech? Are they going to be monitoring every single type of content being put out there? Are they going to be able to have control over every individual and the direct messages being sent to minors?
I ask because in my experience from seeing the levels of grooming and predators reaching out to kids, and kids being exposed to harmful content and their unlimited access to so much information they should not have access to, I think we're not going to be able to monitor and teach them enough that this in itself will keep them safe.
On age verification, I think there should be a minimum age. A couple of apps came out with age verification that used AI. It was extremely effective. Indeed, we tried to get around it in multiple different ways and we couldn't. If you tried to get around it, you were blocked from creating another account on the platform.
There are ways to do this. Yes, they will be costly, but the life of children is priceless. I think it's even more costly when we're seeing the cost of exploitation and grooming and the aftermath of having to deal with those things. Moderation is important. Education and equipping kids are critical, but we also have to hold these corporations, which have created businesses that are not safe for kids or not made for kids...to give free access to these children and youth to be on their platforms and leave it to the parents to monitor that.
Conservative
Kerry Diotte Conservative Edmonton Griesbach, AB
On that note, what do you think of Instagram for teens? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Chief Executive Officer, Center for Exploitation Education
I'm going to speak very bluntly here. I don't believe Mark Zuckerberg cares about our kids, period. Meta does not care about our kids. I think Instagram for teens is a problem. It's just another way for them to make money. The safeguards they are claiming to have in place and what they're going to do are not going to be enough.
There are social media platforms being created specifically for young people. Those are wonderful. We should do that.
Again, we are putting trust and ownership in companies like Meta that have shown time and time again they don't care. I think Instagram for teens is harmful, period.
Liberal
Liberal
David Myles Liberal Fredericton—Oromocto, NB
Thank you to all the witnesses. This is always fascinating. It's a really good conversation today.
One thing I fear is that we're getting a bit mixed up between online activity and social media. They're not really the same. Your kid going on the Internet to google something is very different from going on Instagram or Facebook, and the algorithm is part of that difference.
I totally agree on digital literacy. Sometimes I wonder about the extent to which digital literacy can handle the algorithm. I feel like it can help us to a great extent. Of course, it helps us understand how the algorithm works, which is always valuable, but I think the question we're asking ourselves is this: Is the algorithm such that it makes regulation very difficult...or the nuance of digital literacy enough for a young person to handle it?
It's not just about disinformation and information. It's not just about the quality of the content they're getting. It's about being reinforced on feelings of acceptance or anger and all of these things.
André, maybe you could speak to the challenge of regulating social media or the algorithm itself, as opposed to online spaces. I think sometimes there is a confluence of the two that's maybe not always helpful.
Interim Executive Director, The Dais, Toronto Metropolitan University
It's a great question, and I really agree with the way you framed it.
There are broader questions around all of our addiction to our devices and the way we engage on devices. Then there are specific sets of questions related to social media platforms and other types of platforms or apps on devices.
Canada has been working at this for five years now: How do we get to a place where we regulate social media? Our view is that we were very close at the end of the last Parliament. We were very close to a bill that could get through. It was a bit of a compromise package, but basically, it would have put the duty of responsibility on platforms, with a focus on the seven categories of harmful content. It would have put requirements on them to deal with them, with a specific onus on the two most egregious and a specific focus on kids, with a regulator who could effectively oversee these things.
We just need to move forward with those things. What we've learned is that we need heightened provisions to focus on kids, and we've talked about a lot of those. We've learned a lot, even in the last year or two. Tiana speaks so thoughtfully about influence, for example, and how that space has been evolving. Obviously, the impacts of AI are something that we'll need to consider.
I really think we need to get on with it, and I don't think we need to go back to square one. We know the broad strokes of what we have to do. I hope the government, which has signalled it should be coming up with a bill soon, and Parliament, which has had a couple of cracks previously at going through this legislation, recognize the urgency of moving this through quickly.
In closing, I think all of us have to deal with these broader issues of how we're adapting to our screen time. I am a terrible influence on my kids. My wife and I will have our screens in front of our faces. There's a broader set of social issues and social norms that we all need to think about, and then there's a specific set that we need to deal with on social media. That's the way I think about it.
Liberal
David Myles Liberal Fredericton—Oromocto, NB
I think I'm speaking the same language, André. It comes from experience. I'm not addicted to a website; I'm addicted to social media services that are feeding me snowboard videos and guitar videos on my Instagram. They're very different things and I too struggle with it.
I've watched it change throughout my career in the last 20 years. I was a musician. In my life, the way I promoted my shows was by way of social media, but even control over the relationship between what I produced and the audience completely changed because it became about the algorithm.
This is part of the conversation we should probably talk about too. We're talking about even the narrative of the influencer being in a relationship with the fan. It's actually not. The algorithm now feeds suggested content, so the relationship is between the algorithm and the user, not between the creator and the user, whereas that was our way to build fans. That was our way to build a following. Now it's very much parsed, with the algorithm in between.
I hear you very much, André.
I wonder if Dimitri has any comments.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lisa Hepfner
We will continue with you, Mr. Champoux.
You have two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ms. Tessier‑Bouchard, I'm coming back to you again.
My colleague, Mr. Myles, raised an interesting point. There is a distinction to be made between accessing the Internet, surfing the Internet and browsing social media. The interaction is very different.
Based on your experience, do you think it would be appropriate to have an initiative aimed at young people, the same age group, 8 to 12 years old, that would be a real social media platform, a bit like X, i.e., a media platform where young people interact based on posts they have made themselves? Would it be viable? Obviously, there would have to be supervision if the goal is to educate. Could it work?
Editor, Les As de l'info, Les Coops de l'information
Could it work? Certainly. Would it be useful? Would it be desirable? I'm less sure about that. Elementary school children are still very young.