Mike Lake

Mr. Speaker, Greeting · 14 wordsit is a pleasure to rise to speak to this piece of legislation today.Greeting Procedure · 71 wordsI have been thinking for some time about the issues raised by the legislation, in my capacity as shadow minister for mental health and wellness and in working with many stakeholders who are very concerned about the impact of social media on our kids. To start, I am actually going to talk about something from my own experience that I think speaks to the very things we are talking about today.Procedure Anecdote · 177 wordsA few months ago, my mom was having a fairly minor surgery. One night as I was getting ready for bed, I thought I should text my mom to find out how her surgery went. The next morning, for whatever reason, I was about to text her about something else. I opened up my phone and realized I had never texted my mom the night before to ask her about her surgery. What I had done was open my phone with the full intention of sending a text, but I saw an Instagram notification, just that little dot on the Instagram logo that we cannot ignore, and clicked on something that was not important at all. Instagram was just getting my attention, as it does. I spent probably an hour scrolling reels on Instagram, and none of those reels was important. The types of reels that get my attention on Instagram, generally, are fantastic sports plays set to great music. Certain comedians also get my attention, so my algorithm has Nate Bargatze, Jimmy Carr and other comedians.Anecdote Claims · 116 wordsIt also has videos that explain things through AI-generated songs that are kind of funny and maybe clever, maybe not filled with really accurate information. I do not know.Off point The other thing, though, that I notice about my algorithm is that it is filled with some things that are not so light. Recently, oftentimes, my feed would be filled with crash videos, sometimes plane crash videos. I fly a lot, and for whatever reason, Off pointif I see a piece of video or something like that, I will linger on it maybe a little longer than I should. I have noticed recently that my feed is filled with RIP content about people who have recently passed away. Reasoning · 33 wordsIn retrospect, I know why that has happened. I believe in the JFK quote “Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.” There is a reason why I see what I see.Off point Claims · 53 wordsIt is that a few prominent people whom I followed have passed away in recent times, and I read the stories about them. It was enough to feed my algorithm, and now what has happened is that my algorithm has way more content related to sadness and death than it used to have. Reasoning · 30 wordsWhat this has done is manipulated my natural love for people, my natural empathy for people, and has replaced that with a kind of rumination on tragedy, I would say. Claims · 62 wordsOne other comment is that on X, there is the ability, in some cases, to say, “I am not interested in this.” I have a specific ad that keeps popping up on X, a series of ads. I have clicked “not interested in this” at least four or five times, but they just keeps coming anyway. I cannot get rid of them. The ask · 18 wordsWhat does that look like for kids? I think that is the question we have to answer today. Claims · 44 wordsIt is one thing as a 57-year-old to be drawn into social media. I would not phrase it as an addiction for me right now, but it definitely is something that is very compelling and takes me away from things I care about doing.Off point The question · 11 wordsWhat does that look like for a 13- 14- or 15-year-old? Claims · 168 wordsThey might sit down to look something up on their phone to do some homework or study for something, or maybe there is something that would just be interesting that adds value to their life, or they are texting a friend to make plans, but they get locked into some kind of notification or addictive scrolling session that might last an hour, or two or three hours, when they were just going on their phone to make plans with their friends to do something in person. What does the content look like for kids? Too often, we are hearing that the content that our kids are seeing on there might be related to eating disorders or to the way that someone ought to look. It might be related, in many cases now, to gambling. Maybe it is just fun games at first, but it does not take very long before the algorithm starts to feed them gambling ads. Pornography is another thing that is drawing many kids in. Procedure · 60 wordsThere is a question that we have to ask ourselves, because some people might have a conversation. I think there are some legitimate conversations around free speech in the debate. It will be interesting to see when we go to committee and hear from experts on the impact of other parts of the bill as they relate to free speech.Procedure Reasoning · 182 wordsHowever I would say, for the social media part, for me personally as I am looking at this, I do not see the issue of whether a 15-year-old should have access to social media as a free speech issue. In my view, 15-year-olds are not equipped to be signing contracts with social media behemoths and signing away access to their attention, which is what is happening. It is not a coincidence that we are all seeing what we see on our social media feeds. It is not a coincidence that kids are seeing what they are seeing on their social media feeds. People are paying for them to see what they are seeing on their social media feeds, and the more time they spend on their devices, the more money someone makes in the background. That is an issue. Again, I do not believe that 15-year-olds are equipped to be entering into contracts that they do not fully understand and that tie them into seeing things that they did not expect to see and do not understand why they are seeing them. Procedure · 24 wordsI have a quote from C.S. Lewis that I love, and I think it kind of highlights where we are right now. He said: ProcedureAnecdote · 69 wordsWe all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.AnecdoteOff point Positioning · 68 wordsI want to think about the place we want to be, which C.S. Lewis talks about.Off point I think we all want to be in a place where our kids can thrive, where we all can thrive, where we all can flourish and where we all can live up to our potential. I like to think of a world where our kids can play like we used to play.Positioning Claims · 75 wordsJonathan Haidt’s work has been raised in a lot of the conversations around social media age limits particularly, of course. He has four norms that he points to, in terms of his work. He talks not only about a social media age limit, but also about a restriction on smartphones in schools, which provinces across this country have enacted. He talks about parents deciding to delay smartphone access for their kids to 14 years old. Thanks · 56 wordsThe fourth norm is more play in the real world. There is incredible research being done on the power of play in the real world. I think of my friend Lenore Skenazy and her work on free-range kids, and Mariana Brussoni, a Canadian who does incredible work on unstructured play and the power of risky play.Thanks Reasoning · 26 wordsIf we are going to go down a road with less social media access for kids, we have to have alternatives for our kids to undertake. Promise · 46 wordsI would say, Off pointas a country, one thing that we have to look at is where the spaces are where our kids can get outside and play, so more green space, but more green space where kids are safe to explore like we used to explore. Procedure · 95 wordsI know my time is running short right now. I am very much looking forward to this bill getting to committee. I think there are some legitimate concerns that folks would have about the bill that relate to fairly undefined powers of a regulator, the impact of some of the freedom of speech provisions within the bill that are not related necessarily to a social media age limit, and others. Right now, I look forward to questions, but I really look forward to the conversations that are going to happen at committee on the bill.Procedure