Yesterday, I sent the following e-mail to our MP, the minister responsible, and the Prime Minister, about the planned social media ban for those under 16:
From: “Viktor T. Toth”
Subject: Concerning the proposed under-16 social media ban
To: mona.fortier@…
Cc: Marc.Miller@…, mark.carney@…Dear Ms. Fortier, dear Minister Miller, dear Prime Minister:
I am reading with alarm the Globe and Mail headline that Canada is planning a social media ban for those under 16.
I am alarmed not because the harms are not real but because I consider such a ban likely to be a) ineffective, b) counterproductive, and c) overreaching.
It will be ineffective because a precocious 12-year old will know how to circumvent it. I was such a 12-year old myself back decades ago, and let me tell you, if my 12-year old self was here today, he’d laugh at the ban no matter how it is implemented. Indeed I recall the ease with which I bypassed far more stringent constraints during my last business trip to China behind the Great Firewall: if a totalitarian police state cannot manage access restrictions that it considers essential for regime survival, what makes us think we can effectively age-restrict social media in a liberal democracy?
It will be counterproductive as it may force many teens to the “gray Internet” or overseas Web sites or services, far less regulated, far less visible, far less likely to cooperate than Instagram or TikTok. Meanwhile, the targets of the ban — teens — will learn that the world of adults creates nonsensical regulations that are ineffective, offensive, easy to bypass, and thus grow up into adults with less respect for the rule of law. An attempt to ban a class of applications thus risks creating a culture and infrastructure of circumvention.
And it is overreaching as it will require all of us — not just teens — to present more personally identifiable information to commercial service providers, many of which are not Canadian and do not store such information on Canadian soil, with all the implications on personal privacy and security against identity hijacking.
I sincerely hope that voicing these concerns does not fall on deaf ears and that perhaps our government will consider them before hastily enacting something that might seem popular at first but will likely do more harm than good.
Sincerely,
V. Toth
IT professional
Ottawa ON K1N 9H5
My views on the subject were captured perfectly by ChatGPT’s whimsical illustration.
Yup. That easy. I can only imagine my 12-year old self, living today in 2026… it would not have been an obstacle. I mean it. And my skills would have made me popular with the girls, too!