Children First Canada report labels online harms top threat to minors

The classification of digital risks as the primary threat to minors signals a shift toward stricter platform accountability for streaming and social media providers. By proposing a legal duty of care, the Canadian government is moving to treat digital products with the same safety standards as physical consumer goods like food or toys. This regulatory pressure forces developers to prioritize safety-by-design rather than reactive moderation, potentially impacting how algorithms recommend content to younger demographics. As the debate expands to include gaming and live streaming, industry stakeholders should monitor whether these duty-of-care requirements become the blueprint for broader international digital safety standards.

Children First Canada has been building a coalition of medical and policy organizations to pressure Ottawa into passing online safety legislation. In June 2025, the Canadian Medical Association joined Children First Canada in calling on the federal government to treat online harms as a public health crisis, arguing that algorithmic amplification of harmful content to minors constitutes a systemic failure requiring legislative intervention. The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto has similarly flagged rising emergency department visits linked to social media use among adolescents, providing clinical data that Children First Canada cites in its advocacy. PolicyWise for Children & Families, which co-authored the report, has been tracking provincial and federal regulatory responses to digital harms since 2023, positioning itself as a research bridge between pediatric clinicians and policymakers.

The legislative vehicle at the center of this push is Bill C-34, which would impose a statutory duty of care on platforms serving minors. In May 2025, the Canadian government reintroduced online safety legislation after the previous session's Bill C-63 died on the order paper when Parliament was prorogued, signaling bipartisan recognition that the issue would not fade. The new bill draws on the UK's Online Safety Act model, which Ofcom began enforcing in 2025 with fines of up to 10 percent of global revenue for non-compliant platforms. Australia's approach, which banned children under 16 from social media platforms starting in December 2024, represents a more restrictive model that Canadian legislators have studied but not adopted, preferring the duty-of-care framework that allows platforms to continue serving minors if they meet safety thresholds.

The AI dimension of the report reflects growing concern about generative chatbots and algorithmic recommendation systems. Sara Austin, CEO of Children First Canada, has specifically called out AI chatbot interactions as an emerging vector of harm, noting that the organization's research found children as young as 10 engaging in extended conversations with AI systems without parental awareness. This concern aligns with broader regulatory scrutiny: in July 2025, the US Federal Trade Commission opened an inquiry into AI companion apps marketed to minors, examining whether companies like Character.AI and Snap adequately disclose risks to young users. The convergence of Canadian, British, Australian, and American regulatory action suggests that platform operators serving minors face an increasingly coordinated international compliance landscape, with likely to become a baseline expectation rather than a differentiator.