Official Hansard
Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour for me to stand to speak to Bill C-34, the safe social media act. In my capacity as the very proud member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre, this issue is extremely important and personal to me as a parent. I have a 14-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter, so I am in the thick and thin of social media and smart devices like cellphones and iPads, making sure that I am continuously engaged with my children when it comes to issues around the safe use of social media. Probably one of the biggest issues that I hear from my constituents on a regular basis, especially those who are parents or grandparents, is how to ensure that we have safe access to social media. I am sure members will agree with me that AI comes up in pretty much every single conversation nowadays. People want to ensure that there are strong regulations to monitor all these things. As a result of the many conversations I had with my constituents over several months, and I am sure all of us know of the barbecues and different events that take place, I took the liberty of sending a mailer to my constituents, a questionnaire specifically on Bill C-34, the safe social media act, asking them some really important questions so they could help guide me, and hopefully all of us, on how best to navigate this important issue and on the important features that my constituents would like to see in the legislation. What I asked in this questionnaire, which I sent to all the residents in my riding of Ottawa Centre, were questions like, “How should the government prioritize keeping young Canadians safe online?” and “As the government implements the legislation, what should it prioritize and how?” I also asked my constituents the question, “Which online harms concern you most for the young people in your lives?” We also asked for their experience in online safety and, more specifically, questions concerning the proposed age restriction for social media accounts, which is suggested in the legislation to be 16 plus. First of all, I want to thank all my constituents for so enthusiastically writing on this issue. Not only did they send the mailer back after filling out the questions, but they went online, because we had a Google Forms questionnaire available, and participated. They have approached me on the streets and at community events to talk about this as well. I think a few things really came out of that. There is, as I mentioned earlier, a strong concern as to the safe use of social media. People really want government to step forward and bring in regulations, controls and monitoring so that social media is safe, especially for children, but for seniors as well. I got a very strong sense that there is support for legislation like Bill C-34 from my constituents of Ottawa Centre. One of the key reasons is that people want to protect our children and want legislation. They want Parliament and the government to take steps in that regard. There is also support for a restriction on the use of social media until age 16. I got a very good sense, from the survey results we got back and from my conversations, that people want to make sure there is some sort of age limitation on who can use social media, and 16 seems to be the right age. I will say that if we talk to young people, there is push-back on that, including from my 14-year-old, who understands the benefits and harms around social media but has probed me as to why the age is 16. I think the most important issue that has come up in my conversations is how we are going to regulate that. It is one thing to say we will restrict the use of or access to social media to 16-year-olds. The question then becomes how we are going to enforce that rule. There is an understanding that young people being young people, they will find ways to get around it. Of course, everybody is looking at places such as Australia in that regard. I think an important element that, as legislators, we should be focused on throughout this legislation is how best to enforce the rule, because people want a rule like that in place but also want to ensure that it is not just a rule on paper. They want effective implementation and enforcement of the rule as well. That is why I personally like the idea that we would not just be putting a blanket ban, so to speak, in the legislation. There would be a provision that, if certain standards are met to ensure that there is safe social media, those platforms may be allowed to operate. I think there is a better path, compared to the one in jurisdictions such as Australia, embedded in this legislation, which would allow for access to social media as long as certain standards are met that would ensure that the information our kids have access to is safe. The second point I want to raise, which is something I said at the outset, is that there is a huge concern around AI and its content, the nature of information that is available. Misinformation and disinformation continue to come up in the conversation, and we saw that in the survey documents we received. There is a very significant concern about misleading information that is AI-manipulated and about content that has been altered through AI. I think it would be an understatement if I said that deepfake images and videos are a serious concern that people are grappling with. I heard about this through the consultation process I did in my community. People want assurances that we are taking the necessary steps to make sure that deepfake images and videos are regulated, are monitored and are not allowed, because there are some serious concerns. There are serious concerns from seniors in this regard. I know that much of the focus of the bill is toward young people and teenagers, but there are some serious concerns in our communities on the part of seniors as well who are being exposed to information that looks awfully close to being real. They are concerned about whether information is accurate or not and whether they have been taken advantage of. There are scams being developed. We know that our seniors are quite vulnerable to those kind of scams, frauds, phishing expeditions, etc. There is a real concern from the elderly constituents in my riding of Ottawa Centre on this issue. I think the legislation has a lot of important elements. I am supportive of the legislation and would ask my colleagues of the House to support it as well. I think it would address a very important issue. We know that social media has become ubiquitous in our lives. It is omnipresent. We all rely on it, but there is no control over the content and the algorithm, and it is having a serious impact on our children. I continue to meet a number of parents, including representatives of organizations now led by parents, who are advocating that kids should not have access to all those things. This is a valid concern. As a parent, I am concerned about it. I am really happy that, as parliamentarians, we are addressing this important issue. I want to thank all my constituents in Ottawa Centre for taking the time to fill out the survey we circulated and for giving me this important information so I can be a strong champion for their point of view. We need to make sure the legislation not only passes but would actually be stronger and would protect our children.
