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Canada Studies Social Media Age Checks as France Ban Falls
Ottawa is weighing verification methods as Australia says about 70% of affected teens kept accounts and France’s top court struck down a ban.
- In June 2026, the federal government introduced Bill C-34 to block social media access for children under 16, positioning Canada among countries worldwide adopting age verification systems for online safety.
- On Friday, France's Constitutional Council struck down a proposed social media ban for children under 15, ruling the measure too broad and an infringement upon privacy rights and freedom of expression.
- Andrew MacDougall, senior policy fellow at McGill University's Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, wrote "no single method of age verification is perfect," while Wouter Lueks of CISPA Helmholtz Center warned VPNs can easily bypass restrictions.
- Culture Minister Marc Miller said there will be "a back and forth with platforms as to what protects people's privacy," though Emily Laidlaw, Canada research chair in cybersecurity law at the University of Calgary, said Bill C-34 "is light on details."
- Data indicates about 70 per cent of children retained accounts after bans elsewhere, prompting experts to recommend regulators create systems that "reflect on itself and iterate" as technology evolves.
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33 Articles
33 Articles
Coverage Details
Total News Sources33
Leaning Left22Leaning Right0Center9Last UpdatedBias Distribution71% Left
Bias Distribution
- 71% of the sources lean Left
71% Left
L 71%
C 29%
Factuality
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