B.C. attorney general urges Meta to protect Canadian kids

0:00You've probably seen the story out of the states that meta the platform that owns Facebook and Instagram is rolling out new safeguards for children, things like age restrictions, no push notifications, blocking access certain hours during the day. But why if we know that these safeguards work or we hope that they work and Facebook and Instagram are willing to do them, why don't we have them here in Canada? We're here to help us discuss is Nikki Sharma, Attorney General for British Columbia. Good morning and thanks for being here. Good morning, thanks for having me. Why isn't Canada getting these same protections from meta that the United States is getting? Well, you know, I think that's an excellent question, Scott, and that's a question I've been asking. We've been advocating pretty strong for better protections, and we have litigation here in V.C. where, you know, meta is in court with parents that have suffered just like in the states. My question to meta is why do we have to wait for these lawsuits before they just do the same

1:02thing they're doing for American kids, for Canadian kids, which is set up some level of safeguards that they've agreed to already in the states. I think that they should. If they can turn them on there, why can't they turn them on here? And what has their response been? I mean, I know you're not actually like on the phone with Mark Zuckerberg, but like what is meta saying that they just haven't done it or no one's asking for them, or are they even responding? What's their position? Well, well, as far as I know, they've been silent over here, and I think it's unfortunate when companies who want to show, which you know, it's questionable that they're leaders or they want to be leaders in use safety, but they can't respond or do simple things like basic safety measures turned on in Canada. We do have lawsuits here, and that's as attorney general, perfectly happy to meet them in court. And we have a federal legislation that might take 18 months before there's any rules in place. So why wait if we know that these are safer measures for kids? Why can't they just put them in place right now?

2:03No question. And do you think that this is something that is going to eventually happen in Canada, or will we just have to continue to wait and see? Well, the mechanisms that we have are hopefully not for these litigations to get a court order settlement, but the other thing is, is the federal government does have legislation that's on the floor right now, but it's going to take 18 months to set up the regulations and the oversight for that. That's a mechanism to get these safety measures. It's just really frustrating, I think, probably for parents out there everywhere that these companies can't just design their products with safety in mind, that they have to be defeated in court or pushed in court or pushed by legislation to do that. I think there's something very wrong about that, but we'll continue to pursue that if we need to, right? I think it's the right thing to do for American kids. It's the right thing to do for Canadian kids. And if they won't do it just out of that, then we'll have to find other ways to make them do it. Yeah, absolutely. And now let's talk about the need for this.

3:06Parents might not be aware, or even perhaps people that don't have kids, but what type of dangers are there? What are things that kids are seeing that has made these changes necessary? Yeah, a lot of the lawsuits and the ones even in Canada are based on really serious harms. A lot of evidence is coming out about how these products are designed to keep your eyes on them. And especially for young people when their brains are not as developed, they can fall into these algorithmic traps. They can fall into endless scrolling. It really affects their anxiety and this whole social comparison between likes of your friend or likes of other friends and how somebody's looking because of filters can really impact young people's childhood, right? They're precious years of growing up and it doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be that way. They can instead seek out social connections and do things that are healthy for them on platforms. And it's just something that really just needs to change. And we'll do it out there through litigation that happens here or by laws and regulation that we need to fight for, but just doesn't

4:13make sense to me why we can't just, managers can't do the same thing here that they're doing in the States. Yeah, and I don't think what we're asking for, what you're asking for is crazy by any stretch. I think there's still a place for these platforms and these tools and for our kids to use them and learn to use them as a tool for social connection, but in a responsible way. Now, one of the things that I've heard people say is that this is the parent's responsibility and that parents should be sort of monitoring these things themselves for their kids and not to say that it has to be one or the other. I think both need to happen, but what would you say to that argument that this is the parent's responsibility? Okay. Obviously everybody who's a parent of young kids, they have those conversations about safety with their kids and they should, but let's be real. These products are designed in a way to keep people's eyes on them. They're powerful, those algorithms. And I've heard far too many stories from parents of real tragedies where kids have fallen into these

5:13self-harmed traps, these dark spaces, this anxiety. It doesn't need to be that way. We can parents of course are there to see how their kids doing and set rules, but these products need to be designed in a safer way. We ask that of everything, whether it's our food, whether it's limits on alcohol for young people and those kind of things. We set standards or companies have to play safely, right? And the field, especially with young minds. So it's nothing different for social media platforms than it shouldn't be. And what would these changes look like just so we have an understanding? How would the platforms look different for kids if we made these changes? Well, you know, I think that the tools that they've agreed to through settlement one is to turn off the algorithms. Imagine that, right? That the kids are being targeted by whatever algorithm keeps them on there. They're just interacting with their friends maybe. Putting real limits or disruptions to prevent the endless scrolling and having limitations on this likes comparison and extreme filters for makeup, things like that that are kind of distorting the social anxieties

6:19of young people. Those kind of tools that have better equipped these kids when they're on these platforms, I think is just kind of a bare minimum to be honest with you. I hope they'll just do it. And I hope I think we all need to call them to just do it. And we need to sort out the real rules and laws and regulations at the federal level. Nikki Sharma is the attorney general for British Columbia speaking about meta needing to increase safeguards for children here in Canada. They are doing this in the United States and we need them to do this in Canada. Thank you so much for your time this morning and also for taking on this. I can't imagine it's easy to fight a huge corporation like that, but it needs to happen. So really appreciate your effort. No problem. It's my job and a great pleasure to be that on behalf of people. Take care. Thank you.