The federal government tabled legislation on June 10, 2026 that would prohibit children under 16 from holding accounts on social media services and establish new safety obligations for AI chatbots accessible to minors, according to Canadian Heritage.

This bill is the latest chapter in a multi-year push by Ottawa to regulate online spaces for young Canadians. In February 2024, the government introduced Bill C-63, which targeted harmful content online — including child sexual exploitation — and proposed that platforms take on a "duty of care" toward users. That earlier bill died in Parliament before the subsequent election. The new June 2026 legislation resumes that effort and goes further, adding a hard age threshold and requirements around AI chatbots, which have grown rapidly as consumer products.

What the Legislation Would Do

The core mechanism is straightforward: social media services operating in Canada would be prohibited from allowing users under 16 to create accounts. The compliance burden falls on platforms, not parents or children. The details that will draw scrutiny during parliamentary committee study are critical — how exactly platforms verify age and what penalties apply when verification fails will largely determine whether the age gate works in practice or becomes a paper exercise.

The AI chatbot provisions are genuinely new territory for Canadian law. The Consumer Privacy Protection Act, which overhauls private-sector privacy rules, contains some language on automated decision systems but does not directly address conversational AI products. These have exploded in popularity among young users since the earlier privacy bill was drafted. Explicitly covering AI chatbots in a child-safety framework reflects how quickly that category moved from emerging technology to mass adoption.

Jurisdiction and Enforcement

Child online safety sits in contested constitutional space. Broadcasting and telecommunications fall under federal authority; child welfare and privacy enforcement are shared between Ottawa and the provinces in a patchwork arrangement. How the government will enforce these rules — whether through the CRTC (the broadcast and telecom regulator), a new body, or an expanded Privacy Commissioner — will be a central question as the bill moves through Parliament.

Provinces have not been sitting idle. Several have signalled interest in their own age-restriction rules, and Quebec's Law 25 framework already imposes specific requirements on how platforms handle youth data. A federal floor standard could simplify that landscape or create new conflicts, depending on how courts sort out which level of government has final say when rules overlap.

What Happened Before and What Comes Next

Online-harms legislation has been a long road in Canada. Bill C-63, tabled in February 2024, triggered substantial debate over hate-speech provisions — specifically a proposed restoration of Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act and new civil complaint mechanisms — that overshadowed its child-safety elements and contributed to the bill's parliamentary death. The June 2026 bill appears to have dropped or substantially restructured those contested elements, narrowing the focus to minors and AI. Whether that tighter scope builds durable support across party lines will become clear as the bill moves through second reading.

The practical questions that platforms, privacy advocates, child welfare organisations and provincial governments will focus on during committee study are clear: how the bill defines "social media service" and whether that captures messaging apps, gaming platforms and forums alongside conventional networks; the standard of care expected from AI chatbot operators when interacting with minors; and the timeline platforms will have to comply once the bill passes.

The government holds a majority in Parliament and child online safety commands broad political support across parties. How quickly the bill moves depends largely on how stakeholders engage during committee work, which is already underway.