Australia heavily influenced this decision, the first country to ban social media for those under 16 in December 2025, a move that was quickly followed by several other countries. Apparently, this law has gone pretty well, and the results have been beneficial worldwide, which motivates Canada to apply it as well.
If it becomes official, the companies themselves will have to apply the law in their apps. The detection and banning of underage users’ accounts and the prevention of new ones being created will be accomplished through facial recognition, a technology that scans and estimates a person’s age based on their facial features without requesting too much personal information.
Another main motive for this decision was the fact that social media has been proven to cause multiple negative effects on the population, including low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. One significant issue is social comparison, which arises from the high and unrealistic standards often displayed by certain content creators. Additionally, the algorithms on those apps are designed to repeatedly show users content similar to what they have previously engaged with. This cycle can quickly make individuals with unhealthy viewing habits or those in a vulnerable state of mind feel even more susceptible to negative influences.
Overall, the government thinks there is more negative than positive that comes out of it. That is why, for them, the age should be 16. Given teenagers’ lack of knowledge and maturity, these downsides of social media can become even more harmful.
On the contrary, many Canadian teenagers see this as a bad thing. For them, social media is first and foremost a way of communication and has always been a part of their lives, so it doesn’t make sense for them to ban it. This will be an even bigger shock for teenagers in Quebec, since a provincial law established in 2025 prohibited the use of phones at school. They feel that their freedom would be even more restricted than it has been since last year.
