ANALYSIS | Canadian Poll Finds 75 Per Cent Support Social Media Ban for Youth Under 16
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In December 2025, Australia banned social media for anyone under 16. A recent poll by the non-profit Angus Reid Institute suggests that Canadian citizens would support a similar decision.
The poll, which surveyed 1812 Canadians over the age of 18, discussed the topic of social media bans. Seventy-five per cent of the respondents support social media not being used until the age of 16. Adults without kids and parents with kids aged 10-12 support it the most, at 73 per cent, while parents with children aged 16-17 are less supportive, at 63 per cent. When asked about what Canadians worry about most, they stated addiction (94 per cent), mental health impacts (94 per cent), and predators (93 per cent). Despite the overwhelming support for bans, only 20 per cent say it should be the government's job, while 72 per cent say parents should be encouraged to regulate it themselves.
Social media has become increasingly ingrained in Canadian society throughout the 21st century. The poll found that 89 per cent of children aged 16-17, 77 per cent of children aged 13-15, and 49 per cent of children aged 10-12 currently use social media. A complete ban would affect many children’s lives significantly. When polled on ideas for restrictions, parents agreed far more on required parental consent for accounts rather than a complete social media ban. Specific apps also had more suggestions for individual bans than others, such as TikTok (88 per cent), X (86 per cent), and Snapchat (84 per cent). On the other hand, less than half of parents suggested YouTube for full bans (48 per cent), showing parents’ perspectives on the variety of safety between apps.
Another frequently noted topic is how companies gather the info to check your age. Previously, many sites labeled as 13+ would just let users pick an age, and if they discovered that a user was younger than stated, they might ban their account. However, if a social media ban for youth were implemented, more accurate age verification methods, like ID verification and AI face checks, may be deployed. However, these methods can pose severe security risks, as many sites implementing these checks have had data breaches exposing people's private data. According to Yahoo News, a data breach of IDMerit, a digital identity verifier, that occurred on Nov. 11, 2025, exposed three billion pieces of private information, which could cause many to distrust these verification processes.
Soon before the Angus Reid poll was taken, the Liberal Party planned to discuss the idea of banning social media. According to CBC, on Apr. 11, they voted on two proposals: one banning social media for users under 16 and another banning artificial intelligence (AI) software such as ChatGPT for users under 16. Both eventually passed, though they are not guaranteed to occur.
Concerns about youths’ exposure to AI chatbots arose after the Tumbler Ridge shooting that occurred on Feb. 10. Before the shooting, OpenAI banned the account of the shooter, who had asked the chatbot questions related to shootings; however, the chatbot did not alert any authorities about this. This event brought up questions about how the AI should be moderated, and if police should be alerted about potentially dangerous topics that users chose to discuss with AI.