Helena Konanz

“Madam Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak to Bill C-34, the safe social media act. We are here to debate what I would suggest all parliamentarians hold as a fundamental and heartfelt responsibility: the safety and well-being of Canadian children. I am speaking not just as an MP but also as a parent and as a former public health physician. Let me begin with the third. In public health, one of our responsibilities is to identify threats to health, identify the causal or aggravating elements and intervene before preventable harm occurs. We do not wait until a crisis unfolds to take action. Now, for over a decade, pediatricians, emergency doctors and primary care physicians alike have witnessed a troubling trend amongst young people: a surge in rates of anxiety, depression, clinical loneliness, cyber-bullying and even self-harm or suicide. Children and youth are also spending increasing amounts of time online, exposed to platforms deliberately designed to maximize attention and keep users engaged for as long as possible. These are highly sophisticated systems that personalize content, shape behaviour, and influence emotional well-being in ways that are difficult to navigate, even for adults let alone children. I am also speaking today as a parent. I am the parent of two young people who have had to navigate this digital frontier. Like so many Canadian parents, including many members of the House, I have seen first-hand how incredibly difficult it is for a developing adolescent brain to pull away from a screen filled with ever-refreshing images, algorithms designed to capture and hold their attention. My children have fortunately managed well, but that siren-like attraction can bring young people to dark places. The Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Paediatric Society, the Canadian Mental Health Association and many other medical and health organizations are urging us to pass this bill. “It’s time to put kids over profits”, says the CMA. As an MP, a doctor and a parent, I say we cannot leave families to fight this battle alone. A substantial majority of Canadians support this legislation that would place the responsibility where it belongs: on the platforms that create and profit from these online environments. At the heart of this bill lies a clear legal principle, namely the duty to protect children. This legal obligation applies to all regulated digital services, including social media and regulated chatbot services. Currently, our legislative framework allows web giants to operate reactively, meaning that they moderate content or correct vulnerabilities only after a child has been exposed to harm. Bill C-34 changes that. It legally requires tech companies to build security, privacy and age-appropriate features directly into the very architecture of their products, right from the design stage. Children’s safety will no longer be an optional feature or a hidden setting. Going forward, it will be the baseline legal standard for operating in Canada. Bill C-34 would introduce strict, age-appropriate design obligations, and this would require developers to explicitly prioritize the safety and developmental needs of users under the age of 18. Just as recommended by the Canadian Paediatric Society, the legislation would directly target the predatory, addictive features designed to capture young minds. A key pillar of the duty to protect children is an obligation to prioritize age-appropriate design, requiring developers to take the interests of users under the age of 18 into account when designing services, including incorporating design features that protect children and create safer online experiences. The goal of age-appropriate design is simple: to make online environments safer for children, reducing the risk they will encounter harmful content. The legislation intentionally stays at a level where the digital safety commission would be able to work with experts, industry and Canadians to develop appropriate measures through regulations. This regime would ensure that protections remain evidence-based, adaptable and effective. With Bill C-34, digital services that present high risks to youth would be prohibited from allowing children under the age of 16 to create or own accounts. Learning from experience elsewhere, Canada is pursuing a sophisticated and innovative approach rather than a rigid blanket ban. The bill would utilize an earned exemption model. That is, if a social media platform or digital service can explicitly prove to the digital safety commission that its environment is measurably safe, free from addictive feedback loops and scrubbed of predatory elements, it would be allowed to apply for an exemption. Operating a platform accessible to Canadian children is a privilege that tech companies must earn through proven safety metrics. It is not a default right to exploit data. We are also taking a decisive stand to protect minors from explicit material. Bill C-34 would mandate that regulated services implement highly secure privacy-preserving age verification or age estimation technologies to ensure that users under the age of 18 cannot access pornographic content in Canada. Let me clarify a point of public debate. This does not mean age-gating the entire Internet for adults, nor would it infringe upon freedom of expression. It simply means placing a reliable digital barrier in front of explicit adult content. Furthermore, the bill would enforce strict privacy protections on the tech platforms themselves. Any personal data collected to verify a user’s age would have to be heavily encrypted, be used strictly for the purpose of age assurance and be permanently deleted immediately after the check is complete. As a former public health professional, I know we must always look ahead to emerging vectors and be alert for emerging patterns of harm. Social media feeds are no longer the only risk. With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, Canadian youth are spending hours a day interacting with advanced AI chatbots. Children are uniquely vulnerable to these systems, which frequently employ manipulative techniques to encourage deep emotional dependency and unearned trust. Developers would be required to implement safeguards that identify and address foreseeable risks, prevent the promotion of self-harm or other harmful content and ensure that users are clearly informed when they are interacting with an artificial intelligence system rather than with a human being. The risks associated with AI also require immediate attention. Bill C-34 responds directly to this new reality by imposing a duty to react specifically on chatbots. The designers of these AI systems will now be legally required to implement rigorous emergency response protocols, systematically block the distribution of content promoting self-harm, and explicitly remind users at all times that they are interacting with a machine, not a human being. Finally, the legislation would apply a zero tolerance mandate to the most severe forms of online trauma. When content involves the sexual victimization of a child or the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, platforms would not be able to hide behind slow internal review processes. Bill C-34 would legally mandate that tech platforms remove this highly destructive material within 24 hours of its being flagged. In public health, we should not and do not hesitate to regulate the safety standards of the cars our families ride in, the food our children eat or the toys they play with. It is our long-overdue obligation to ensure that the digital space where our children spend hours every day is likewise comprehensively included. As a parliamentarian, I recognize our legislative duty. As a physician, I recognize our obligation to address a serious and growing public health problem. As a parent, I know how desperately Canadian families are looking for structured and reliable support. Bill C-34 would give our country the tools to enforce compliance. Platforms that fail to protect our kids would face historic financial penalties of up to 5% of their global revenue. Canada’s leading pediatricians, public health experts, and parents agree the status quo is untenable. I urge all members of the House to support the swift passage of the proposed safe social media act so we can finally build a digital world that prioritizes the safety of Canadian children.”