The House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage met to study the impacts of social media and online harms on children and youth, hearing from a panel of witnesses including Carol Todd, Maude Bonenfant, Guy Desrosiers, Sara Austin, Zachary Fathally, Josephine Maharaj, Karen Orser, and Aimee Berends.
Carol Todd, founder of the Amanda Todd Legacy Society, spoke from personal experience as a mother who lost her daughter to online harms, emphasizing that these issues have escalated since 2009 and that Canada urgently needs an online safety act with strong protections for children. She called on the government to table and pass legislation, to hold big tech accountable, and to ensure prevention tools like Public Safety Canada's interactive road show are made available across provinces rather than stored in a warehouse.
Maude Bonenfant, a professor and Canada Research Chair at UQAM, focused on the economic model of social media, describing how advertising, microtransactions, and commodification of personal data drive profits, often through illegal collection of geolocation data on children. She highlighted persuasive design techniques like infinite scroll and notifications that exploit cognitive biases, and recommended regulating dark patterns, algorithms, and data practices to create safer, age-appropriate digital spaces.
Guy Desrosiers, CEO of Capsana, presented data on health impacts of screen time, noting that leisure use exceeding two hours per day correlates with sleep problems, sedentary lifestyles, and other harms. He recommended recognizing screens as a lifestyle habit, supporting parents, removing personal devices from schools and child care settings, increasing awareness of initiatives like PAUSE, and establishing a digital regulatory authority to hold the industry accountable.
Sara Austin, founder of Children First Canada, stated that the evidence on online harms is overwhelming and that Canada has delayed action for 1,619 days since pledging an online safety act. She urged the government to table and pass robust legislation including a duty of care, independent oversight, youth protections by design, data access for research, and coverage of AI systems, and warned that a social media ban alone would not solve the problem.
Zachary Fathally, a 12-year-old member of the Young Canadians' Parliament, said that kids are living the harms of online platforms designed to keep them scrolling, and that safety should be the default, not a setting users must implement. He expressed skepticism about a ban under 14, noting that kids can find workarounds, and emphasized the need for regulation rather than prohibition.
Josephine Maharaj, a 17-year-old member of the Young Canadians' Parliament, described social media as a system that shapes self-image and behaviour, and said that logging off is no longer a viable option since the internet is central to school, work, and friendships. She called for thoughtful solutions developed through collaboration between youth and policy-makers, and for holding tech companies accountable for systems that exploit users.
Karen Orser, CEO of the Luna Child and Youth Advocacy Centre, reported that over 15% of cases at Luna involve an online or image-based component, with rising rates of CSAM, sextortion, and AI-generated abuse, and a 40% increase in problematic sexual behaviour cases linked to viewing pornography. She recommended strengthening collaboration between child advocacy centres and child exploitation units, supporting cross-sector information sharing, training professionals, coordinating national data collection, and engaging with tech companies for stronger safety features.
Aimee Berends, a registered psychotherapist at Shalem Mental Health Network, described clinical observations of families struggling with social media's impact on regulation skills, self-diagnosis from online misinformation, and gaps between parents and children. She recommended clearer guidelines for use versus non-use, longitudinal studies, and prevention and education from multiple sources, noting that social media is one of many factors disrupting sleep, attention, and social skills.
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