145
submitted 1 month ago by Sunshine@piefed.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

An Angus Reid survey says three-quarters of more than 4,000 respondents are in favour of a ban like the one in Australia, where youth under 16 are prevented from setting up accounts on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and Threads.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I imagine like other laws that threaten warnings, fines and such for parents who let their kids do this or that.

No ID submission, def fuck that. If there's an electronic component it has to be gov't-run and it has to just divulge whether the user is allowed to use that service. Not share age, or other info.

But again, ideally I want a law that tells parents to not let children on social media. That would be enough to mitigate the vast majority of the damage. It would let rebels (parents or kids) do it anyway if they're smart enough to not get caught, while keeping the 80% away from it.

[-] FlareHeart@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago

LOL!

It has been known for a long time that social media is harmful for kids. If parents wouldn't parent properly for the good of their children before, then a toothless law (there would be no way to know children are using the sites) won't make them parent now.

How would sites know there are children using the services? How would the authorities know to issue fines? The only way these things happen is with some form of ID system.

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yes I'm looking for essentially a half-toothless law with punishment "if reported" like it is for the laws against leaving your child alone. Someone has to report you. If you're not reported, you aren't punished. Yet everyone I know complies with very few occasional exceptions, even if all of them think it's a stupid law. Even half-toothless laws can change the overall situation. All I need is the majority of her peers to have been forbidden social media. I can do the rest. If everyone she knows is on social... it's my word against the world and while I might be able to pull off argument that sticks, it'll be difficult.

[-] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Who goes to prison now when a kid is found to be using social media?

And now what counts as social media? Is it only Facebook, or does it include things like WhatsApp, Mastodon, Instagram, Bluesky, Lemmy, a blog or chatroom?

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago

You don't have to false dichotomy it. There's other options than prison. The gov't determines what's social media. There can be diff criteria. The determination can be made by a regulatory body similar to the CRTC that updates what counts as social media now and then.

[-] nik282000@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

gov’t determines what’s social media

No, they are not capable of that. Using the CRTC as an example only exemplifies that.

Is Steam social media? IRC? Github? Kernel.org? This push for age verification is Red White And Blue, USA, red blooded republican agenda and should not be leaking into the rest of civilization. It is another step forward in the war on general computing.

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

What do you mean they're not capable?

[-] nik282000@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

The Canadian government is absolutely inept in the area of technology. It allows a duopoly to own telecommunications, we have the highest bandwidth fees in all of the western world, service websites have fucking monday to friday hours!?!

They are literally not equipped to make decisions about technology.

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I understand. I think our oligopoly situation and its regulatory capture has nothing to do with our gov't ability to create classification of services. It's a systemic failure of a different nature that's definitely pretty horrible. No point trying to convince me otherwise but I do understand your view.

BTW, I do agree that the private corpo age verification bullshit comes from American corporate interests. Which is one of the reasons I DO NOT want age verification in Canada.

this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2026
145 points (96.8% liked)

Canada

12005 readers
479 users here now

What's going on Canada?



Related Communities


🍁 Meta


🗺️ Provinces / Territories


🏙️ Cities / Local Communities

Sorted alphabetically by city name.


🏒 Sports

Baseball

Basketball

Curling

Hockey

Soccer


💻 Schools / Universities

Sorted by province, then by total full-time enrolment.


💵 Finance, Shopping, Sales


🗣️ Politics


🍁 Social / Culture


Rules

  1. Keep the original title when submitting an article. You can put your own commentary in the body of the post or in the comment section.

Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca also apply here. See the sidebar on the homepage: lemmy.ca


founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS