Ottawa to Introduce Online Safety Bill Containing Social Media Ban for Youth

The federal Liberal government plans to introduce legislation outlining new online safety regulations on Tuesday. Sources told CBC the legislation will include some kind of ban. Premier Scott Moe said he is pleased to see Ottawa move ahead with legislated social media restrictions.

He said whether Saskatchewan enacts its own law will depend on if the federal one meets the province's standards. "We'll see whether it's temporary, what ages, what platforms and just how deep these limitations may look," Moe said in an interview Tuesday at the Saskatoon airport just ahead of his departure for an international trade mission.

" The province of Saskatchewan shared early results of its social media ban survey with the federal government.

The survey was mailed out in May. Of all the postcard surveys returned to date, 86 per cent indicate support for some sort of social media restriction, Moe said. The deadline to return the surveys is June 30.

"When there's input being provided by the provinces to the federal government and they act on that input, that's the way that co-operative federalism is supposed to work," Moe said. Tamara Hinz, a child and adolescent psychologist in Saskatoon, said social media restrictions will be more effective as a national policy.

She likened social media restrictions to the recent cellphone ban in classrooms or laws around cannabis and alcohol.

"This is really something that does need to be approached from more of a big picture kind of public health lens, as opposed to trying to leave such a big and complex topic up to individual families or smaller jurisdictions," Hinz said. " Hinz will be looking for how the proposed legislation holds social media companies accountable in areas such as content monitoring, algorithm manipulation and privacy issues.