Edmontonians react to plan to remove youth from social media

It’s a question every parent has to grapple with. At what age is it appropriate for children to be using social media or artificial intelligence chatbots, as the federal Liberal Party officially takes a stance on an age restriction of 16.

“It’s a good tool, a very powerful tool, but it can be misused. Social media is becoming really dangerous for kids in some areas, it is not really very well regulated,” said one Edmonton parent CityNews spoke to.

The liberals’ non-binding resolution comes after Australia became the first country to put a ban on social media for users under 16 years old last December.

“These products were never made for kids to begin with,” said Robin Sherk. who volunteers with an organisation looking to protect kids from online dangers that come with social media, smartphones and the A.I. features expanding with them.

She says putting policy in place would be a step in the right direction, but not the only solution calling for improved digital literacy and safety.

“It’s becoming so embedded with A.I. right now, there already are those chatbots within those services, and frankly, when you’re talking to one of those online stranger profiles you don’t even know if you’re talking to a person or some sort of virtual influencer,” Sherk explained.

To enforce the youth ban, privacy specialist Cheryl Savard says the government has put the responsibility on social media companies, threatening fines for companies that don’t work to block these accounts, pointing to things like facial scanning and requiring government ID for signing up. But she has concerns with privacy protection. Specifically, what happens after you hand over your private information?

“There can be a variety of ways we collect facial recognition, being one of them. But, where we get into grayer areas is, well, once that information is collected, how are we going to monitor its use and disclosure,” said Savard.

Savard says it’s a difficult balancing act, but agrees legislation around social media is lagging. But what age is the right cut-off? Still up for debate.

“In a kind of way, it’s right, but maybe age need to be like should be banned for 10-year-olds, or have like parents’ control of this,” said one Edmontonian CityNews spoke to.

The Edmonton parent CityNews spoke to added, “I would like to teach them the dangers, and I’d like to educate them about what’s wrong, what’s right there, and then slowly ease them into it.”