MONTREAL — Children’s advocates pushing for more online safety measures call Meta’s settlement of a multibillion-dollar lawsuit in the United States a watershed moment, but new rules announced for Facebook and Instagram in the United-States won’t apply for children and teens in Canada, at least for now. In a statement to CTV News, Meta said that the changes the social media giant agreed to are U.S.-specific and that it already has strong protections in place for teens, while also offering simple controls for parents around the world today. “We’ll continue to monitor how these changes are working in the U.S. and engage in productive dialogue with other governments to support age-appropriate experiences on our platforms, and across the many apps teens use,” read the statement. The measures mentioned as part of the settlement of the case launched by American states against Meta include: “It’s really important that these changes are not just implemented for kids in the States, that they be made available to children and youth in Canada and around the world,” says Children First Canada Founder and CEO Sara Austin. “Products that are on the market that are available to young people should be safe. There is no other product on the market that’s targeted to kids and made available to them, whether it is food, medicine, toys and even pyjamas that don’t have to meet certain product safety standards before they can be made available.” Children First Canada has been pushing for tighter social media rules since its founding, more than a decade ago. The charitable organization says while new measures won’t be automatically expanded to Canada, the lawsuit is one of the latest signs the momentum is shifting for social media giants. “We’ve let Meta and all these tech companies off the hook for far too long, and change is finally coming,” says Austin. “Beyond this latest legal decision, we know that there are thousands of lawsuits still making their way through the courts in the U.S. and here in Canada and in many other jurisdictions around the world,” she said. “So, this is not the end of accountability. But more importantly I think it also underscores the importance of legal standards for Canadian children.” Austin says young users have often circumvented measures that have been introduced in the past by social media companies, for instance minimum age requirements, and that tighter laws are necessary. Earlier this summer, Ottawa introduced the Safe Social Media Act. It aims to include greater hurdles to access for those under the ages of 16. “We cannot just count on these companies to do the right thing,” says Austin. “We need legislation to protect our kids. It is long overdue, and I really hope that Canadians demand that our parliament put children first.” Meta also added in its statement that teens use dozens of apps every day, and that meaningful safety for teens means that apps like TikTok and YouTube must join the social media company’s efforts to establish what it called a new standard of protection.
