Three-quarters of Canadians want to stop children under 16 from opening social media accounts, according to a sweeping new survey that reveals deep public anxiety about the role these platforms play in young people’s lives.
The Angus Reid poll, which gathered responses from more than 4,000 Canadians, found overwhelming support for an approach similar to Australia’s recently enacted law one that locks minors under 16 out of platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and Threads entirely.
The findings land at a charged moment. Just last week, a California jury ordered Meta and YouTube to pay millions in damages to a 20-year-old woman, ruling that the platforms had been deliberately engineered to be addictive. The verdict has reignited debate across North America about just how much responsibility tech giants should bear for the harm their products cause to younger users.
Back in Canada, the issue is fast becoming a political flashpoint. The Liberal Party is set to put social media age restrictions on the table at its national convention next month, with growing calls for legislation that would shift the burden of enforcement directly onto the tech companies themselves, rather than leaving parents to fight that battle alone.
And yet the poll throws up a striking contradiction. While most respondents back a government-enforced ban, the same majority also believes parents not lawmakers should be the primary line of defence when it comes to regulating teenagers’ social media habits. Angus Reid itself flagged this as a “curious juxtaposition,” and it likely reflects the complicated, often conflicted way the public thinks about state intervention in family life.
What isn’t complicated is the level of alarm Canadians feel about these platforms. A staggering 94 percent of respondents said they are worried about social media’s impact on mental health. Beyond that, addiction, runaway screen time, misinformation, online predators and cyberbullying all ranked among the most pressing concerns.
The survey was conducted online between March 11 and 17. Because participants were not randomly sampled, the Canadian Research Insights Council notes that a traditional margin of error cannot be applied to the results.
