Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in the House today to present e-petition 45-1, initiated by one of my constituents, Ms. Jenny Perez, a passionate advocate for children's online safety. This petition has garnered the support of nearly 2,000 Canadians, including parents and concerned citizens from coast to coast to coast.
The petitioners draw attention to the growing concern that smart phones are becoming a gateway to harmful content for Canadian youth. They note that the majority of children now own a device by the age of 12. They further raise concerns about algorithm-driven social media platforms, which are designed to maximize user engagement, often in ways that can be addictive and detrimental to the emotional and mental well-being of young people.
The petitioners are calling upon the Government of Canada to raise the minimum age for social media use to 16 through mandatory age-verification systems and meaningful enforcement measures, similar to recent actions taken by countries like Australia, and to strengthen the privacy rights of minors under the age of 18 by ensuring that social media companies are prohibited from collecting, storing and sharing personal data from youth, including data gathered through age-verification technologies.