Canada’s proposed Bill C-34 would age-gate social media for youth under 16, but will it actually make kids safer? After reviewing the entire bill and government briefings, we remain unconvinced. Evidence from Australia, real-world cases we’ve worked on, and decades of experience suggest that online harms are rarely tied to a birthday. The bigger questions may be about platform design, digital literacy, parental engagement, and whether age-gating solves the problem it was crea

To truly create a safe, secure, and harm-free internet, online safety regulations must be applied fairly across all services and devices, not just social media platforms. Only then can we build a genuinely safer online environment for children and everyone else.