Liberals set to debate age restrictions for social media

MONTREAL — Liberal party members will soon grapple with the question of whether children and young teens should be barred from accessing social media accounts for platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and YouTube.

The policy resolution is expected to hit the floor at the Liberal party policy convention in Montreal for debate and a vote on Saturday.

Jonathan Nuss, the head of the Outremont Liberal riding association, is one of the main proponents of a resolution calling on the party to ensure social media platforms limit user accounts to Canadians aged 16 and older.

The Montreal lawyer and father of two young children said he wants this resolution to kick-start a national debate on addictive technologies and the harmful effects social media can have on young children — a debate that’s already happening among parents across the country.

“These products are being designed in such a way that makes them addictive, that makes them harmful,” Nuss told The Canadian Press.

“We keep kids safe from alcohol, from cigarettes, from plenty of other products that are dangerous for them. There are laws that protect children from malicious advertising campaigns. There are a variety of frameworks that exist to protect children in our society, and I think that needs to be extended into this space.”

The question comes just a few months after Australia became the first country to introduce fines for social media companies that allow underage users to create accounts on online social platforms. Other countries are also considering such a move.

While the Liberal convention resolution does not take a position on whether fines should be part of the policy, it points to the risks social media poses for children, including heightened anxiety, cyberbullying, the sharing of non-consensual images and exposure to hateful content.

Nuss also cited a recent Los Angeles lawsuit that resulted in Meta and YouTube being ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages for designing their platforms to hook young people without concern for their well-being.

A California jury awarded damages to a 20-year-old woman who alleged she became completely addicted to social media and that it harmed her mental health.

The case considered features engineered by social media companies to maximize the time users spend on their platforms, such as constant scrolling, autoplay and algorithmic content suggestions.

The social media companies have disputed the verdict and suggested they plan to appeal.

Outremont MP Rachel Bendayan supports the resolution. She said she has an eight-year-old daughter who is not yet exposed to social media, but has an iPad and is “getting quite curious about the different ways that she can use it.”

“Many parents of kids around that age are starting to wonder what kind of choices they should be making,” Bendayan said, adding many parents she’s heard from feel they’re tackling the problem alone.

She said she thinks the idea of an age-based social media ban would receive support across party lines in Parliament.

Bendayan said she’s been surprised by the amount of interest young people themselves have expressed in an age limit for social media.

Prime Minister Mark Carney was asked about the issue by journalists during a trip to Japan and Australia last month.

“This is something that merits an open and considered debate in Canada. I don’t have a settled view on it,” Carney said in Tokyo on March 7. “There are arguments in both directions and now there’s more and more experience with it, albeit on a relatively short term.”

The prime minister also said Canadian law is “lagging” behind on addressing online harms, and his government should consider including an age of majority in its online harms legislation.

Another policy proposal being put forward at the party convention would seek to limit use of AI chatbots to older teens and adults.

Any policies passed at the convention are non-binding. But a January report in the Globe and Mail newspaper citing confidential sources suggested the government has been working quietly on a similar policy for children under 14.

Not every kid in Australia has been booted from their socials, and some have found workarounds.

But the question of whether kids can bypass restrictions hasn’t discouraged proponents.

“There’s lots of folks that don’t wear their seatbelts. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to enforce people wearing seatbelts,” Bendayan said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2026.

— With files from The Associated Press

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press