
The British Columbia government has shelved its proposed online harm bill after reaching an agreement with some social media platforms to improve online safety for young people. The Public Health Accountability and Cost Recovery Act (aka Bill 12) would have allowed the province to sue social networks for the harm they cause to kids and teens.
In a joint statement released on Tuesday, Premier David Eby and representatives from Meta, TikTok, Snap and X said they will meet to discuss how to protect young people from online harm before it happens under a BC Online Safety Action Table.
“The Province will place Bill 12 on hold as we convene the first meeting of the table to discuss the tangible steps we can take to help ensure British Columbians have safe, empowering experiences online. Through this work, kids will be better protected from online harms before they happen,” read the statement. “This is an opportunity to bring experts, parents, technology companies and government together to build on expertise and shared experience, and discuss new ways of helping young people have safe experiences online, together.”
A Snapchat spokesperson tells MiC that the company welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with the government and share more about their commitment to the safety of its community. “We look forward to participating in the upcoming Action Table with others in the industry to discuss these critical safety issues.”
The app says it continues to work to protect its youngest users, especially those between the ages of 13 and 17, with several of its policies. For example, it allows teens to only be contacted by friends and phone contacts; doesn’t show teens’ profiles in someone else’s search results unless they have friends in common; and offer safety tools so users can easily block someone.
It also has easy reporting tools for teens to confidentially report a safety concern, as well as tools exclusively for parents. “We want to give parents important information to help them monitor their teens’ activity – similar to the ways they do in real life – so that they feel more empowered when talking to their teens about safe online habits,” the company says.
For its part, a TikTok spokesperson says the social network continues to develop safeguards such as parental controls, screen time limits and age restrictions on features such direct messaging. “We look forward to joining Premier Eby and working with industry counterparts at the BC Online Safety Action Table to discuss best practices towards our shared goal of keeping young people safe online,” the company says.
Meta has also been updating its Facebook and Instagram apps to offer teens more protection online. Earlier this year, it announced the social networks will begin hiding results related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders. The new modifications also prevent teens from seeing related content in “Feed” and “Stories,” even if it is shared by a person they follow.
British Columbia introduced Bill 12 last March to recover costs associated with the promotion, marketing and distribution of products that are harmful to adults and children in the province. Weeks earlier, Ottawa introduced Bill C-63 to create a new law to hold online platforms accountable for the content they publish.