Hate these bills sweeping the world disguising what are essentially anti privacy pro surveillance laws as "child protection".
this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2026
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How is it surveillance? Just don't give them your ID or use the platform, they have negative value anyway.
My understanding is that a ban is not the desired goal, more an 'emergency break' while other regulatory means catch up.
I grew up with the Internet of the noughties and saw some screwed up stuff. That should have been on my parents, but I turned out okay anyway.
Canada’s just the latest to join the mass surveillance club.
It's not only mass surveillance but people who grew up with the same internet and opportunities you did, who now want to pull up the ladder behind them. Lame move all around.
Why do we need a separate bill for social media companies to remove content that sexually victimizes children? Existing laws would have worked, if they had been enforced.
Also, not regulating AI chatbot use for children because it hasn't been studied yet is moronic. It is absolutely obvious that AI has serious cognitive impacts on adults. This generation doesn't have any chance.
Oh my. Here we go again.
This is just a backdoor to pedo tech bro mass surveillance
While social media is age-gated by the bill, AI chatbot services won't be. "Chatbots are not as well-studied as the harm caused by social media platforms," Miller said during the press conference announcing the bill. "They don't have the same social role." With that said, the Safe Social Media Act also includes language around "AI chatbot services," seemingly in response to OpenAI's handling of the Tumbler Ridge shooting. As part of the bill, AI platforms are expected to mitigate the risk of chatbots "communicating harmful content" and engaging in harmful behavior, while also introducing "emergency measures" for dealing with crisis situations.
Seems like we're seeing that this isn't just about consumer surveillance but also pushing another platform
Social media needs regulation for everyone, and I'm deeply concerned about the impact of ID verification on the open web, but at the same time, given the clear harms, it's hard to argue with people attempting some form of regulation, even if limited and imperfect.
These laws are not going to do much in my eyes. It's usually cheaper for big tech to pay a fine and any kid who puts some effort in will get around it. I started drinking when I was 14. I'm mid 30s now. I'm of the opinion that most of this is a parenting issue more than anything else.
I mean sort of, but it's a parenting issue in the way that smoking was for our grandparents, but in some ways, much worse.
With smoking back in the day, our grandparents were addicted to it, and inadvertently modelled that behaviour for our parents (or for other people's kids who thought they looked cool), leading way more of our parents generation to smoke, even though they started growing up being aware of the risks and the impact it was having on their parents.
Social media is operating like that, but one difference is that smoking mostly cost people money... It did also cost them time, but most of that time was paid in years of their lives at the end. Social media is costing everyone their time constantly, day in - day out, and sapping their attention, focus, and willpower... Leaving social media addicted parents even less bandwidth to try and make sure their kids grow up different then smoking parents.
Just stop at the word “media”
No, as someone who has grown up and seen the change, it is vastly different.