The House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage met to study the effects of influencers and social media content on children and adolescents, hearing from six witnesses across academia, content creator associations, and child protection and human rights organizations.
Fenwick McKelvey, an associate professor at Concordia University, testified that youth media habits differ significantly from adults, with 55% of teens using TikTok compared to 22% of adults, and that influencers are a key part of their media landscape. He noted that 78% of youth follow an influencer and that the media system is increasingly flooded with AI-generated and scam content, with Reuters reporting that 10% of Meta's advertising revenue comes from scam ads. McKelvey recommended better accountability for online advertising, stronger enforcement by the CRTC and Competition Bureau against false advertising, and continued support for public service media and media literacy education.
Laurence Labrosse-Héroux, general manager of the Association des créatrices et créateurs de contenu du Québec (ACREA), described her organization as a community of nearly 1,000 content creators that offers training on mental health and disinformation. She stated that content creators have a direct influence on Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and that the web often self-regulates when misinformation spreads, as creators in specialized fields respond to false claims. She did not make specific legislative recommendations but emphasized the need to recognize content creation as part of culture and to support creators in promoting Quebec and Canadian culture.
Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at B'nai Brith Canada, warned that online radicalization of youth is a national security threat, citing a CSIS report showing a growing trend of youth as young as 13 involved in counterterrorism investigations. He recommended that the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security study youth radicalization online, that the federal government develop a national digital literacy program, and that Canada actuate commitments made in the 2025 G7 interior and security ministers' communiqué to reduce online extremism.
Monique St. Germain, general counsel for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, reported that Cybertip.ca processed over 29,000 reports in 2024, mostly involving child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and that Project Arachnid issues roughly 10,000 removal requests daily. She explained that child influencer accounts often attract men with a sexual interest in children, and that algorithms amplify harmful content by connecting like-minded users. She recommended regulating a duty of care on platforms, mandating detection and removal of known CSAM, implementing age assurance tools, and noted that Bill C-63 from the last Parliament would have been a positive step.
Jocelyn Monsma Selby, chair of Connecting to Protect, testified that algorithms on platforms like TikTok and YouTube expose vulnerable children to more problematic content, with users behaving like eight-year-olds receiving almost seven times more child-directed content than 16-year-olds. She cited research showing adolescence now spans ages 9 to 32 as a period of heightened risk for mental health disorders, and argued that current Canadian laws are insufficient. She recommended a non-partisan, evidence-based legal framework for Internet access regulation, drawing on international models such as the U.K.'s Online Safety Act and the EU's Digital Services Act, and advocated for device-level age verification rather than platform-specific bans.
Farnell Morisset, secretary of ACREA's board of directors and a content creator himself, emphasized that most creators aim to contribute positively and that the web has a natural immune system where credible voices counter misinformation. He cautioned against overly broad regulation that might block beneficial content, such as educational math tutorials or age-appropriate sex education, and suggested that platforms themselves are best placed to design algorithms that distinguish between harmful and valuable content for youth.
The committee briefly discussed scheduling, agreeing to invite the new Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture to appear on December 8, and to extend the study by two additional meetings, with a motion to that effect.
AI-generated summary — may contain errors; verify against the official evidence.