A Calgary woman is leading a national push to have the federal government revive legislation aimed at protecting people — especially children — from harmful online content.
A group of parents, doctors, educators and other advocates from across the country planned to go to Parliament Hill Thursday morning to launch its Countdown for Kids campaign. They’re calling for the Online Harms Act to be reintroduced and strengthened before the year ends.
The legislation, formally known as Bill C-63, was tabled last year. It proposed heavier sentences for spreading hate online. It also would have required online platforms like social media companies to take down certain content within 24 hours after it’s flagged as harmful.
But the bill didn’t pass before the federal election was called and Parliament was prorogued. It hasn’t been re-introduced since.
Calgary’s Sara Austin is trying to change that.
“The digital environment where kids are exposed from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to sleep is completely unregulated,” said Austin, CEO of Children First Canada and mother of a teenager.
“It is putting kids’ lives on the line and they will continue to pay immeasurable suffering if our government fails to act.”
The campaign comes as concerns around online child sexual exploitation and cyberbullying mount across the country — including in Alberta.
The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT) has been warning for years that online sexual exploitation complaints are on the rise.
Its Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit investigates offences specifically involving child sexual abuse and exploitation material, computer-related child sexual abuse, luring over the internet, voyeurism and child sex trafficking.
Since 2022, the unit has investigated over 17,500 cases across the province, according to data provided by ALERT. Over those three years, 446 people have been charged, with nearly 1,900 charges laid.
There are also concerns about violent online groups pressuring vulnerable young people into harming themselves. As CBC’s The Fifth Estate reported earlier this year, a Red Deer teenager fell victim to the violent extremist group called 764.
At the University of Calgary, associate law professor Emily Laidlaw has been advocating for an online safety bill for years. She also holds a Canada Research Chair in cybersecurity law.
Laidlaw said everyday, young people are being exposed to content that promotes harmful behaviours like suicidal ideations, eating disorders and self harm.
“For so long, the push has been on parents to bear the burden of this and to figure out how to protect their kids. And we absolutely should focus on empowerment tools for families. But this is a whole of society problem. And when it comes to that, you need some regulatory body to advocate for the public interest,” said Laidlaw.
She said jurisdictions like the European Union, United Kingdom and Australia have developed laws to address the problem; but like the United States, Canada is falling behind. She said previous attempts to pass such laws have gotten caught up in debates about freedom of expression and censorship.
Now, Laidlaw worries about the rise of artificial intelligence — particularly AI chatbots.
“There are some amendments that need to be made and absolutely chatbots need to be scoped into the new legislation,” she said.
The national coalition led by Austin is calling on the Liberal government to rename the Online Harms Act to the Online Safety Act.
They say they have two non-negotiables: that the federal government creates an independent regulator to enforce compliance among online platforms, and that those digital platforms must be legally required to keep users safe.
The federal justice minister’s office told CBC News in a statement that it will move forward with legislation to protect children from online sexual exploitation — a Liberal campaign promise from 2021.
It’s still unclear if Minister Sean Fraser will reintroduce the previous bill or if it will be rewritten.
“The work is ongoing as we continue consultations to get it right. We will have more to say as we finalize the legislation and move to introduce it, and we expect all parties to work together to keep our children safe,” said Lola Dandybaeva, the office’s manager of media relations.
