Good morning, and thank you to the chair and members of the committee.
My name is Sara Austin. I'm speaking to you today as the founder and CEO of Children First Canada, advocating for the rights of eight million children. I'm also the mother of a teenage boy whose 15 years of life has been entirely immersed in the digital age.
I'm joined by two brave and remarkable youth, Zachary and Josephine, and we're here with a very simple message: We do not need more studies and we do not need to debate whether social media is a problem for children. We already know the answer. The evidence is overwhelming and consistent.
Children are sexually exploited, groomed, bullied, extorted and exposed to content that harms their mental health and development at scale every single day. These harms are foreseeable and preventable.
It has been 1,619 days since the government pledged to table the online safety act, and kids are still waiting. That's why we launched the countdown for kids: to make delay visible, measurable and impossible to ignore. While Parliament studies, platforms profit, and while committees debate, kids pay the price. Every day of delay costs children something they cannot get back—a day of their childhood.
We launched the countdown for kids in honour of children like Amanda Todd, Rehtaeh Parsons, Carson Cleland, Daniel Lints, Harry Burke and many more who tragically died due to online harms. Their lives were full of possibility, and their pain was preventable. We say their names because decisions that you make have real consequences.
It seems painfully obvious to parents and children what the solution is, and we need your help. We are fighting against a multi-billion dollar tech industry that opposes the online safety act because their profits depend on engagement at any cost.
Yes, one might reasonably ask what chance parents and kids really have in this David-and-Goliath fight. I live in Alberta, and there's one thing you learn quickly here: You never get between a mama bear and her cubs. The mama bears of Canada are not going down without a fight, and I can promise you that the papa bears are fighting too.
Let me be very clear: There is no silver bullet. No bill will be perfect and no law will stop every harm, but perfection has never been the standard for protecting our children. Seat belts aren't perfect, food safety laws aren't perfect and toy safety standards aren't perfect, yet Parliament has acted when children's lives have been in danger.
We cannot afford partisan gridlock again. If there's one thing that all of you should agree on, it's the protection of our children. This is not about censorship, it is not about moral panic and it is not about blaming parents or children. It is about accountability. Children cannot vote. They do not sit in cabinet. They do not control multi-billion dollar algorithms.
Today, I ask you, our Prime Minister and all members of Parliament to treat this as what it is: a crisis that's endangering the lives of Canada's children. Please table the online safety act and pass it quickly. Stop asking children to wait. The time for studies is over. It's time for action.
I now pass the floor to Zachary and then to Josephine.