Time to act

Canada's peers have moved with urgency. The United Kingdom's Online Safety Act 2023 established a duty-of-care framework; children's safety duties came into force in July 2025.1 The European Union's Digital Services Act has imposed systemic risk assessment obligations on Very Large Online Platforms since August 2023.2 Australia enacted minimum age legislation prohibiting children under 16 from accessing social media in November 2024.3

Canada has not yet been able to legislate in this area despite several worthy attempts. While this paper cannot answer all that is needed by policymakers in order to move forward, we hope it has at least drawn attention to the urgency of action and the significant cost associated with continuing to do nothing.