Provinces eye youth social media bans as federal government weighs action

Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra said Tuesday that he is looking not only at a social media ban, but also a near-total ban on cellphones at school.

“I think the evidence is becoming more and more clear that cellphone use in our schools, elementary and our secondary schools, anywhere on site, has become a problem, so we are considering an outright ban of cellphones on school properties across the province of Ontario,” Calandra said, adding there would be medical exemptions.

Ontario will be working closely with the federal government on a social media ban for kids under a certain age, he said.

“I think most ministers of education are in agreement that it’s not healthy for our kids in our schools to have access,” Calandra said.

British Columbia Attorney General Niki Sharma said Tuesday that a mass shooting at a school in Tumbler Ridge earlier this year gave a tragic example of harms that can come from chatbots, as the shooter had worrisome interactions with ChatGPT ahead of the killings.

Parents all around the world have seen the harms that can emerge from social media too, she said. 

“We also have sexploitation leading to suicide,” Sharma said. 

“We have (a) rise in eating disorders and anxiety. Clearly, self regulation is not working. We can’t have these companies that control a lot of the wealth in the world also deciding what’s safe or unsafe for our children and our vulnerable people in our society. That’s government’s job, to step in and set a standard to make sure that people are safe.”

Kinew said Tuesday that as a first step, schools and teachers may be prohibited from using some AI chatbots and sites like YouTube, but he ultimately wants to be able to levy billion-dollar fines for companies who do not comply with a broader set of rules.

A spokesperson for Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery said that while the province is aware that some jurisdictions are considering or putting in place restrictions on social media for youth, it is not currently taking similar action.

“We are watching these developments, and no restrictions are being considered at this time,” Heather Jenkins said in an email Tuesday.

In December, Australia became the first country to create a law enforcing age limits on social media accounts, and it introduced fines for companies found non-compliant. Several other countries in Europe and Asia have since followed suit.

Federal Culture Minister Marc Miller has said the government is seriously considering a similar law.

The federal government is in the best position to enact such a ban, Sharma said Tuesday, but if it does not act in a timely fashion, B.C. is prepared to go it alone, or perhaps participate in an “alliance” among provinces to take action.

Online safety and children’s advocates held a press conference Monday in Ottawa to call on the government to quickly introduce legislation. The event included Carol Todd, whose daughter Amanda died by suicide in 2012 after she was targeted for online sextortion.

She said Amanda’s story “shocked this country. But what should shock us even more is that more than a decade later, children are still being harmed in the same ways, on more powerful platforms with even less protection.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2026.

– with files from Wolfgang Depner in Victoria, Brittany Hobson in Winnipeg and Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa.