Canadians want kids under 16 kicked off social media
Time to touch grass
Countries around the world are considering social media bans for kids and teens, and Canadians are on board.
A new survey by the Angus Reid Institute says 75 per cent of Canadians support banning social media for kids under the age of 16, the Toronto Star reports. That puts us in good company: Australia recently became the first country in the world to do so, and several others may soon follow suit.
When the Australian ban went into effect last December, 550,000 teenagers found themselves locked out of their accounts on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube—among other apps—and were left to wait for their 16th birthday to log back on. Early results suggest some are now putting their phones down and touching grass.
This polling also follows the result of a landmark court case in Los Angeles, where a jury found Meta and Google liable for causing a young woman’s social media addiction and resulting mental health problems, and were ordered to pay $3 million US in damages, reports the BBC. Both companies plan to appeal.
The anti-phone tide is rising in Europe, too. The UK is currently running a pilot program to test a ban like Australia’s, Spain has its own law in the works and a French government commission has come to similar conclusions.
Now it seems the same could happen in Canada: the Star notes that the federal Liberal Party will discuss an Australia-style ban at their upcoming national convention in April. If this really is coming, phone-glued teens may want to take notice now: it’s always hardest to quit cold turkey.
Anthony Milton is a freelance journalist based in Toronto specializing in long-form magazine writing. He previously worked as an assistant editor at Toronto Life, where he launched the Front Row newsletter. He regularly contributes all sorts of stories to the magazine, including deep dives on sports, business and housing as well as short-form commentary on our ever-changing city, from its obsession with cherry blossoms to its maddening NIMBYism. His work has also appeared in Maclean’s, Ricochet, TVO, the Trillium and more.
