Bill C-216 Minors in Digital Age

Phone screen with a teal shield and Parental Protection ON
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C-216 An Act to enact the Protection of Minors in the Digital Age Act and to amend two Acts

Short Title:  Promotion of Safety in the Digital Age Act

Bill Type:  Private Member’s Bill

Bill Sponsor:  Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner (Calgary Nose Hill)

Status: Outside the Order of Precedence — First Reading June 19, 2025. This Bill hasn't passed yet.

Estimated Read Time:  4 minutes  

WHO GAINS POWER

  • Government gains authority to make Regulations implementing the platform requirements, on the Minister of Industry’s recommendation after consultation with the CRTC
  • The CRTC gains authority to establish guidelines on how platforms may conduct market research involving minors
  • Parents gain controls over minors’ privacy settings, platform usage and purchases. For children under 16, parents also gain options to delete their account and personal data
  • Minors and parents gain a private right of action — they can sue platforms directly in court for serious harm
  • Internet service providers face expanded mandatory reporting obligations to law enforcement, including transmission data where the content is manifestly child sexual abuse and exploitation material
  • Courts gain new tools to unmask anonymous online harassers via production orders

WHO LOSES POWER

  • Platform operators (social media, gaming, apps) lose the ability to design for engagement over safety when minors are involved
  • Platforms cannot use personalized recommendation systems or personal data to market age-restricted products to minors
  • Platforms cannot use dark patterns — interface designs that trick users into weakening safety settings
  • Anonymous online harassers lose protection — courts can order their identity revealed
  • Platforms lose discretion on default settings — the highest protection level must be the default for children

WHO GAINS MONEY

  • Minors and parents who suffer serious harm can claim damages, aggravated damages and punitive damages directly from platforms
  • Victims of non-consensual intimate image sharing — including AI-generated false intimate images — can claim reimbursement for removal costs
  • Independent reviewers and auditors — platforms must commission independent reviews every two years

WHO LOSES MONEY

  • Platform operators face fines up to $25 million for violating duty of care, safety settings, parental controls or prohibitions (sections 4–9)
  • Platform operators face fines up to $10 million for transparency and record-keeping violations (sections 10–12)
  • Platforms bear the cost of age verification systems, independent audits, annual reports and compliance infrastructure

THE CATCH

  • ⚠️ “Knows or should reasonably know” is the standard for identifying minors. When restricting access to content inappropriate for children, platforms must use reliable, privacy-preserving age-verification algorithms. They cannot require or request the digital identifier described in Section 9(3), but the Bill does not prohibit every form of identity document
  • ⚠️ The Bill would criminalize non-consensual sharing of computer-generated or edited false intimate images. The maximum sentence reaches 14 years where the accused knew or should have known that aggravated sexual assault was occurring or had just occurred when the image was created or edited
  • ⚠️ The CRTC sets market research guidelines — but those guidelines are not binding law; they are guidelines only
  • ⚠️ Private right of action requires "serious harm" — defined as significant physical or psychological harm or substantial economic loss. Everyday harms may not meet the threshold
  • ⚠️ Parts 2 and 3 come into force immediately on Royal Assent unless the specified 2024 Act on child sexual abuse and exploitation material is not yet in force, in which case they wait until it takes effect. Part 1’s main platform obligations begin after 18 months, while record-keeping, independent reviews, annual reports and CRTC research guidelines begin after two years
  • ⚠️ No dedicated regulator or enforcement body is named — the Minister and CRTC share oversight but no single agency is responsible for enforcement