Marie-Hélène Gaudreau

“Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour and a pleasure to rise in the House as the voice of Calgary Midnapore. I am so grateful for my citizens. Many of my citizens, including my parents, of course, and myself, are parents. When we talk about being a parent, we may have many other titles and roles in our lives. We may be a sister or a cousin. In our work, we have many roles. We may be a colleague, perhaps a subordinate or even a leader, a boss, someone who has to take the care and responsibility of others into consideration. I know that any parent, not only in Calgary Midnapore but across Canada, would agree that there is nothing more important than their role as a parent and the safety of their children. We all love our children. I cannot think of anything more dear or precious to me than my son, and I know all parents feel this way about their children. It should be known to Canadians that protecting kids online is non-negotiable for Conservatives. However, good intentions require sound mechanisms. We must be focused on holding tech giants accountable and empowering parents, not expanding government bureaucracy. As this bill moves to committee, we will scrutinize its provisions to ensure that it delivers real protection for children. As a parent, I want nothing more than that for our children and for the parents of Canada. Online harms are a real problem, and the problem is twofold. Number one, children are exposed to addictive platforms. I see this in my household, and when friends come over, all the time. There is inappropriate content, exploitation and many other harms. Secondly, parents are overwhelmed by rapidly changing technology and fighting an uphill battle against big tech. This was never more prevalent than during COVID, when all parents across the nation all of a sudden had to become IT consultants, so to speak, as they navigated schooling for their children during that difficult time. These are real problems. According to Statistics Canada, one in four children aged 12 to 17 has experienced cyber-bullying, and police reported online child sexual exploitation incidents reaching 16,905 in 2024, up 347% from 2014. Cyber-victimization is also associated with serious mental health outcomes, including suicidal ideation and attempts. Canada has experienced the devastating impacts and real-world consequences of online harms. The tragic case of Amanda Todd, who died by suicide after experiencing sextortion and cyber-bullying, illustrates the devastating impact these harms can have on young people. In addition, I have two examples from my home province of Alberta. Dated September 25, the headline on the first article states, “After 2 youths stalked on Snapchat, review your kid’s settings, police urge”. The article reads, “Police in Alberta are urging parents to check the location settings on their children’s social media and communication apps after two youth allegedly being sexually exploited in Edmonton were followed to their homes.” This is outlining the threats. “‘The victims reported that they complied out of extreme fear for their safety and the safety of their family,’” again outlining the threats. The article continues: “The suspect allegedly tracked the victim’s location via Snapchat and travelled to their family home. ALERT said they allegedly knew both the victims’ home address and what school they attended.” This is the type of threat that exists as a result of social media. That is one example from my home province of Alberta. The headline on the second article says, “Edmonton teens, 14, charged after AI used to make sexualized images of classmates”. The article states, “Two Edmonton junior high students are facing child sexual exploitation charges for allegedly using AI to generate sexualized images of classmates. Such charges are only the tip of the iceberg in an emerging area of online child sex abuse, police say, adding it remains difficult to hold AI platforms themselves accountable.” Problems for children are many, and children spend a large portion of their lives online. For today’s youth, digital platforms are not separate from everyday life. This is where they socialize, build relationships, access information, express themselves and, increasingly, interact with AI. As a result, what happens online can have profound real-world consequences, including exposure to cyber-bullying, sexual exploitation, self-harm and eating disorder content, violence, and other harmful material. Children are vulnerable to the ways that platforms are designed. Platform features, such as recommendation algorithms, push notifications, endless scrolling and autoplay can repeatedly direct youth towards content that keeps them engaged. These design choices can amplify exposure to harmful material and make it difficult for young users to disengage. At the same time, AI chatbots and digital companions are becoming increasingly integrated into the platforms used by young people, creating new and largely untested risks. In addition to problems for children, there are problems for parents. Parents cannot solve the problem alone, and they are asking for help. They can set boundaries, monitor devices and talk to children about online safety. We have done all of this in my home, but parents cannot control how platforms and algorithms recommend content, prevent strangers from contacting their children or remove harmful material at scale. Parents need technology companies and governments to share responsibility for creating a safer online environment for children. We do not ask parents to enforce car seat standards or alcohol laws by themselves, and online safety should be no different. In fact, according to an Angus Reid survey, 75% of Canadians, and 70% of parents with children in the home, support banning social media for youth under 16. I will give an example in my province of such legislation. This legislation exists not only in Alberta but also across other provinces in the federation. On June 17, 2024, it was decreed: Parents, teachers, students and our education partners were clear that the use of personal mobile devices and social media in the classroom was of concern. We’re taking a measured approach to protect students by restricting the use of personal mobile devices during instructional time to reduce distractions and bullying, maximize learning time and support student mental health. This is one province that has taken an approach to such threats and such risks, because the threats, as I said, are very much real. We need to consider also the duties of operators, because these operators have a duty to protect our children. They should require social media services and chatbot services to implement design features respecting the protection of children, as per future regulations. They should require social media services to implement age verification estimation to prevent users who are under 16 from setting up or maintaining accounts. As well, they should require regulated services that provide access to pornographic material to implement age verification or age estimation to prevent children from getting access to these platforms. These operators have a duty to act responsibly. They should require social media services and chatbots to assess and mitigate the risks associated with several categories of harmful content. As well, they have a duty to make certain that certain content is inaccessible and require social media services to take down content that sexually victimizes children. Our Conservative principles regarding online safety are clear, and as a parent and as a mother, I ask the government to consider them.”