The Online Harms Bill must be passed

Canada is one of the safest places in the world for children.
Unless they’re online.

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Without the Online Harms Bill (OHB) to protect children from predators, there are no safe spaces on the internet. That means every child is at risk. No matter how much we try to protect them as parents.

The Canadian Centre for Child Protection supports Canada’s Online Harms Bill (Bill C‑63) because every day we see the devastation to children and youth who have been sexually victimized online. It’s time for change.

The Online Harms Act, Bill C‑63, is Canada’s first comprehensive proposed law to provide children some of the protections online that they benefit from every day offline. When passed, Canada will be following the lead of nations, including the U.K., Australia, and the European Union, who have already or are now implementing regulations that will impose safety requirements online in those countries.

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Why does C3P support the OHB?

  • Because the numbers from social media companies themselves tell us there’s a big problem. Their industry reports that 65% of teen users have been targeted by sexual offenders.1 Meta, for its part, estimates around 100,000 kids per day are sexually targeted across their platforms.2
  • Because it will give Canadian children rights and protections in online spaces — like they have offline.
  • Because it finally signals to an unregulated industry that is often described as one with the motto “move fast and break things” that it cannot cut corners on ethics and safety in the mad rush to commercialize the attention of our children.
  • Because relying on criminal law will not stop the harms happening to children online — we must prevent them from happening. For example, a criminal law in Canada does little for a child who was victimized by an offender overseas, but a regulation that forces social media to implement safety by design could help stop the victimization from occurring in the first place.

Hear why the OHB is important from Canadian moms whose children were sexually victimized online:

Two moms share their children’s experiences being sexually victimized and how their victimization was facilitated through online platforms. The moms call for accountability for the illegal activity and content taking place on big tech platforms.
Two moms share how the design of popular social media platforms facilitated the harm against their children. Their sons died by suicide after being sextorted.
Carol Todd and Leah Parsons, who have been fighting for online regulation for over a decade, share their stories of their children’s victimization, their frustrations with tech companies lack of action, and how regulation can change children’s lives.

Unprecedented level of sexual abuse and violence against children

  • In the last two years, Cybertip.ca has received nearly 7,000 reports alone from youth being sexually extorted, mainly through Instagram or Snapchat. This issue is of epidemic proportion with a number of youths also dying by suicide as a result of the torment they faced by online predators.
  • The explosion of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is incomprehensible. Project Arachnid often issues upwards of 20,000 removal requests involving CSAM every day to service providers around the world.
  • We are regularly observing children as young as six being coerced over livestream into a sexual act while using insufficiently moderated platforms. Unbeknown to these children, offenders are then recording them to share on the dark web and other spaces.
  • In recent years, we have observed growing online networks of adults with a problematic sexual interest in children. These online communities share illegal material, talk about their CSAM collections, encourage each other, and share tactics — including “how to” manuals (essentially, “how to sexually harm and evade consequences”). Of critical concern, many in these communities obsess over certain victims, try to locate them, and even stalk them well into adulthood.

C3P’s initial recommendations for strengthening bill C-63

Items we believe should be considered for the OHB:

  1. Exclusion of private messaging features from proposed Online Harms Act leaves a substantial threat to children unaddressed.
  2. Legislated age assurance requirement needed to ensure regulated services fulfil their child specific duties under proposed Online Harms Act.

Tech Harm Timeline: Failures by the tech industry to protect its users

We believe what matters is actions, not words. Our Tech Harm Timeline documents example after example of reports of tech companies failing to protect their users, especially children.

This timeline shows why Canada desperately needs regulation for online platforms.

What can you do?

Reach out to your MP and tell them online regulation is important to you. Visit here for more information.

  1. 1 Beauchere, J. (2023, October 16). Two-thirds of Gen Z targeted for online “sextortion” — New Snap research. WeProtect Global Alliance. https://www.weprotect.org/blog/two-thirds-of-gen-z-targeted-for-online-sextortion-new-snap-research/ ↩
  2. 2 New Mexico v. Meta Platforms, Inc., 1:23-cv-01115-MIS-KK (D.N.M. Feb. 5, 2024) ↩

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