The Liberal government has introduced their highly anticipated Online Harms Act, which proposes sweeping reforms focused on protecting children online.
WATCH: The federal government tabled the Online Harms bill on Monday, which it says will make the internet safer and is focused on protecting minors against sexual abuse and extortion. Touria Izri has the details.The Liberal government has introduced their highly anticipated Online Harms Act, which proposes sweeping reforms focused on protecting children online, creating internet complaint mechanisms, and potentially steep new penalties for hate crimes.
The government says that private and encrypted messaging services are excluded from this legislation. They will however, be able to expand the scope of what social media services are covered if sites pose a “significant risk of harm.”This legislation breaks down into three broad categories, protecting users – especially children – from harmful content, establishing an enforceable complaint mechanism plus Criminal Code and Canadian Human Rights Act amendments.
“We know that we need to bring an end to the wild west on the internet and make sure that Canadians are protected from hate, scourge of child pornography, self-harm that is often promoted through algorithms often directly to the most vulnerable and the kind of disinformation that is created,” Julian said.For online services that would fall under the act, the legislation puts three duties in place: duty to act responsibly, duty to make certain content inaccessible and a duty to protect children.
Finally, there is the duty to protect children. This calls on online platforms to ensure they have age-appropriate design features, be targeted and adaptable and be transparent in their practices.
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