Marianne Dandurand

“Mr. Speaker, today we are debating a very important bill aimed at protecting our children. I have no children of my own, but I am an uncle and a godfather. I know these children will grow up in a world that is quite different from the one I grew up in, even though I am not that old. The digital world has become omnipresent in our lives and in the lives of young people. Obviously, social media is everywhere, and artificial intelligence is on the rise. This opens up a number of possibilities. These new technologies can be very useful to young people, but they also come with risks, new threats and new dangers that previous generations may not have had to deal with in the same way. As a legislator, I think it is important to pay attention to these changes and adapt our legislative framework to keep kids safe. For example, when parents send their kids to school, to activities run by community organizations or to other institutions, they expect their kids to be safe in those environments. The same should be true in the virtual spaces that are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in modern life. As a result, big tech and social media platforms should have certain obligations to keep kids safe online. Parents certainly have a role to play, but they cannot monitor their kids 24 hours a day. I believe that, as parliamentarians, we must give parents the tools they need and help them keep their kids safe online. That is exactly what we are doing with Bill C-34. We are implementing an appropriate framework to protect children from being exposed to harmful content while using chatbots and social media. This bill is in keeping with the spirit of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, because one of the articles of that convention talks about measures that should be taken to protect children from material or information that could be injurious to their well-being. As members know, children can be exposed to a lot of such content online. With Bill C‑34, we are proposing a better regulatory framework governing how children under the age of 16 use social media. This is an important issue because, when we look at the data, it is clear that young people are experiencing mental health problems. A number of indicators are quite worrisome, all things considered. The excessive and addictive use of social media can have an impact on mental health. This has been documented. Research also shows that the adverse effects social media can have on mental health are even more pronounced among preteens and teens. We also know that there is harmful content out there that young people can be exposed to. We have a responsibility to protect young people from that kind of content. Our approach with Bill C-34 is to ban people under the age of 16 from having accounts on platforms that have not proven that their services are safe. An important distinction needs to be made here. This is not an outright ban. We are not banning all social media for people under 16. We are preventing them from creating accounts on platforms that do not submit a safety plan. Bill C‑34 sets out a specific procedure. Platforms that want to allow young people under 16 to create an account will have to apply to the new digital safety commission for an exemption and prove that their products are safe for children. They will have to show how they protect children from harmful content, like content that could incite violence or bullying, content that involves sexual exploitation or intimate images shared without consent, or content that could encourage young people to harm themselves or others. That kind of content should not be available to our youth online. Unfortunately, as they are currently designed, the algorithms sometimes expose young people to content like that much too early in life, and it can affect their mental health. If the digital platforms want young people to have accounts, they will have to implement safety measures and revise their algorithms. I am no technology expert, but there are ways to prevent young people from being exposed to this type of content. The platforms will have to prove their measures work. If not, they will have to implement age verification. Several age verification tools are available. There are models in Australia and the United Kingdom. We did not identify a specific model in the bill because we know that technology evolves. The model that is ultimately adopted will need to be approved by the new digital safety commission, which will bring together experts in the field. There must be a degree of flexibility in determining the most effective methods of verifying people’s age online while also respecting their privacy. This is an important point. Where age verification is required, there will also be obligations regarding privacy protection and the prompt deletion of supporting documents. In this way, the platforms can effectively verify age while also ensuring that this data is not retained, thereby protecting privacy. We know that artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the world as we know it. It is therefore important to address the issue of our young people’s safety when they use various AI-powered tools, particularly chatbots. The aim of Bill C-34 is to require certain safeguards to be built into these tools from the design stage onward. We are taking proactive measures through prevention. When algorithms are used, how does the system work? How can we set guidelines to ensure that these services are safe for young people to use? These services must embed age-appropriate safeguards into the design and operation of their products. We have an obligation to act responsibly and to mitigate the risk of harmful behaviour that could be incited by these chatbots. Here is a concrete example. Unfortunately, young people may experience mental health challenges. If somebody uses a chatbot to ask about self-harm or say they are contemplating suicide, certain mechanisms should be set in motion. There would be requirements in this respect. If a young person asks a chatbot a question about these types of issues, they would automatically be referred to the appropriate resources. There would also be measures in place if somebody talks about harming others. In what context should the company that owns the chatbot refer a matter to the RCMP? There will be clearer guidelines and procedures to ensure that these tools are safer to use. The chatbots will have to be transparent. Companies will also have to submit a safety plan to the commission. Simply making an effort will not be good enough. They will have to explain how they plan to implement these safety measures. The bill also requires a faster process for removing harmful content. We know how harmful it can be for someone to have their intimate images shared without their consent. This also includes deepfakes. In the age of AI, it is possible to create images that appear very real, featuring someone’s face, but that are in fact fake images depicting situations that are sometimes intimate. The sharing of this kind of image is extremely harmful. Incidentally, we legislated on this issue by passing Bill C-16. Bill C‑34 goes one step further. It imposes a duty on the platforms to quickly suppress this kind of content. If non-consensual intimate content is posted on online platforms or social media, the companies will have a duty to ensure that it is quickly taken down. If they do not, the digital safety commission will have the authority to levy fines. We need to take action and take this issue very seriously, because it has a real impact on the victims. Lastly, Bill C‑34 will also create the new digital safety commission of Canada. This commission will bring together experts in the field and report annually to Parliament. Its report will be submitted to the minister and tabled in Parliament to ensure accountability. This commission and these experts will examine the digital safety plans prepared and published by social media platforms and chatbot services to verify whether they meet the required standards. Do they sufficiently meet the standards to allow people under the age of 16 to use them? This commission will also help ensure transparency by requiring platforms to submit their safety plans to it. The commission will also be responsible for imposing fines. I think imposing fines is important because we need to ensure a certain level of accountability. If platforms fail to meet their obligations, there need to be real consequences. In the event of non-compliance, there could be a fine of up to 3% of global revenue, so these amounts could be very significant. This is essential.”