Ottawa should take young Canadians’ perspectives into account in its proposed Online Harms Act to ensure the law effectively protects minors from digital threats, a political youth organization says.
The Young Politicians of Canada is recommending changes to Bill C-63, which is currently at second reading in the House of Commons. The organization says it would like to see the law better regulate social media companies and mandate youth participation in online oversight bodies.
“We’ve met with [members of Parliament], House [of Commons] leaders and other government stakeholders the past couple days,” said Jaden Braves, 16, the organization’s chief executive and founder at a press conference in Ottawa on Oct. 29. “We’re meeting with more today to make sure all of our voices are within a bill that so strongly affects young Canadians.”
Nearly half of Canadian parents say they are concerned with the amount of time their kids spend online, a 2019 Angus Reid poll shows. A US study from the same year shows teens spent an average of seven hours a day on some form of screen.
Meanwhile, the digital world has become more dangerous for youth. Sexploitation — where a victim is extorted for money after sharing sexual images — has risen dramatically in Canada in recent years, particularly sexploitation targeting minors.
“Young people are glued to [their phones]. If we can make them safer, we are protecting the next generation of Canadians,” said Braves, who is currently completing Grade 11 at a Toronto public school.
Online harms epidemic
Many young Canadians are addicted to their phones, says Braves.
“I look around the room and I see students that are struggling significantly,” he said. “Teachers don’t necessarily have the bandwidth to enforce students not being on their phones … a whole population of students in the classroom will be scrolling on TikTok while the teacher’s speaking.”
Social media companies’ addictive platforms are in large part to blame for students’ inability to put their phones down, he says. His organization is proposing that the Online Harms Act require tech companies to formulate their platforms in a manner that does not cause mental harm.
“We want transparency around the algorithms that shape what we see, often without our knowledge,” said Lina Nada Maach, 17, who is part of the organization’s delegation to the Heritage Roundtable and Youth Input in the Online Harms Act. The roundtable is a group of young Canadians who discuss potential improvements to the bill with legislators.
Ottawa needs to keep up with the ever changing technological landscape to know how abusers are targeting kids. To do this, legislators need to listen to kids — not just adults and experts — to hear about their online experiences.
“Parents aren’t even aware of a lot of the way social media works — it’s not their generation, but our generation,” said Braves.
Nada Maach agrees. “How can the Online Harms Act protect us if it does not actively involve us in the process?” she said.
In the past ten years, it has become normal for youth to send sexual images — or “nudes” — to others, Braves says. Artificial intelligence has made it difficult for young people to discern whether the people they speak with online are who they say they are.
“Often, students will be paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars out of their own bank accounts to these people that are threatening to expose their images, which they thought were totally real, because AI deep fakes can replicate … nude images of a person that doesn’t exist,” said Braves.
The Young Politicians of Canada is also calling on Ottawa to include youth as part of the Digital Safety Commission of Canada, a body that would regulate digital content under the act. Youth would be responsible for providing input on the various matters the commission oversees.
For example, digitally savvy youth could be asked to assess whether an online post contained hate speech or whether someone was just trying to be funny, says Braves. Failing to incorporate youth’s perspectives could lead to free speech being unduly curtailed, he says.
“It’s very hard to describe what’s parody or rather what’s comical, what’s a joke, on the internet,” said Braves. “It’s a super Gen Z conversation … an old person might not understand it as much as a young person — that’s just the generational gaps.
“For example, a meme that might be racy or problematic, but we see that there’s humour involved — we see it’s not actually directly hating a particular category of people. It’s not bigoted. It’s not prejudice towards a group of people,” he said.
Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani met with the Young Politicians of Canada in September, spokesperson Chantalle Aubertin confirmed to Canadian Affairs.
“Young people have always led the way in driving change, from civil rights to climate action,” Aubertin said in an emailed statement. “Today, they’re at the forefront, demanding stronger online safety because they’re the ones most impacted. We are grateful for their insight and their advocacy.”
