It is an honour to speak here. Thank you, Chair and members of the committee, for inviting me to speak today.
My name is Carol Todd. I am here as a mother, an educator and an advocate and as someone whose life was permanently changed by the devastating impacts of online harm on a young person. Amanda's name has become known worldwide in the fight against cyber-bullying, sextortion, exploitation and mental health, all of these being online harms and what we are here to talk about today.
When I talk about online harms, it isn't theoretical for me. It comes from a deep and personal space and lived experience. I am a mother who buried her child because of what began on a screen. My daughter Amanda was bright, creative and full of possibility, yet her life was stolen by the cruelty of online exploitation, relentless bullying and a digital world that was never built with safety in mind. Her story is not just a headline or a cautionary tale. It is a reminder that behind every statistic is a child who needed protection, a family who expected safety and a world that still needs to do better.
I'm going to go a bit off my written words because I have way too many words. I have sat through all four of the other committee meetings, and one of my fears is that I may not get a chance to say what I need to say off-script. I have submitted my words, and I will resubmit them. They're available for reading. Please read them, because they have lots of detail, empathy and emotion in them.
What I want to say off-script is this. My daughter died in 2012, in October. As a mom and as an educator in British Columbia, I have spent my time ensuring that I understand what is going on in the world in the digital space, and my role as an advocate, a mother and an educator is to ensure the safety of others. The safety of others includes children, youth, adults, caregivers, seniors—basically anyone in the world, no matter what gender, what race and what identity they have.
This is important to me as a Canadian citizen and as an individual, because online harms have been going on for way too long. This started for Amanda back in 2009. We are in 2026 now. Those harms have escalated. Those harms haven't gone away. When I stand in front of this government or a government in the United States or a government in Australia, this is what I say: What are we doing to help the kids and the citizens in our country?
We worked hard. I was in a Canadian heritage meeting back in 2021 or 2022 in British Columbia, and in the Canadian heritage group we were talking about online safety and online harms. That was four years ago. Another bill was brought up and tabled last year or the year before, and it also died in Parliament for whatever reasons.
An online safety bill—we would like an online safety act tabled—and the online harms act are of the utmost importance to all of us. I am in touch with many parents who have lost children or are parent survivors of kids who have dealt with trauma due to online harms. They could not be here today, so I am here for them. I am speaking with them. I am in contact with them. We all, as a parent collective, say out loud that we need better protections for our children, which includes making big tech responsible and includes our government making legislation to ensure that our kids remain safe or become safe in the environment they live in.
No longer are we living in just an environment in an open space. We are living in a digital world. Ninety-eight per cent of children have access to a mobile device and are on Wi-Fi.
As an educator, I go out and talk to parents. I teach my teachers. I also talk to the students in my school district. There are about 40,000 of them. I know what is happening out there in that world and why we need to be a voice.
As I said, I went off-script. I did not read my eight pages. If I don't get a chance to speak again, please read what I have written.