Healthcare, Civil Society, and Academic Leaders Sign Open Letter Urging Government to Table Online Harms Bill
Dec. 4, 2023
Leading healthcare experts, civil society organizations, and academics have signed an open letter urging government to table its long awaited online harms bill. The letter calls for Canada to join a growing number of peer countries by introducing legislation that will address harms posed to children by digital platforms.
In a bid to hold the government accountable to its 2021 federal campaign promise to enact legislation that addresses online safety, the letter has been signed by 55 notable healthcare, civil society, and academic experts. These include all members of the Expert Advisory Group on Online Safety in Canada, Carol Todd, the Founder of Amanda Todd Legacy, and leaders from the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), Children’s Healthcare Canada and Children First Canada.
“The Canadian government has taken a good approach to crafting online harms legislation. It conducted far-reaching consultations and sought guidance from experts, civil society, and international counterparts. The hard work is done. It’s now time to start the urgent public debate about the specifics of the bill,” says Taylor Owen, the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications, The Director of The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, and an Associate Professor in the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University.
The letter highlights studies that substantiate what many parents, teachers, and children themselves anecdotally know to be true about the dark side of social media. Children are regularly navigating online feeds that fuel eating disorders and self-harms, which, at the worst end of the spectrum, tragically propel youth to suicide. Additionally, Canadian kids are increasingly subjected to violations of their privacy, harassment, sextortion, and cyberbullying from offenders within and outside of Canada, on platforms they use every day.
”Other democracies including the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Australia have introduced and passed legislation aimed at safeguarding their citizens online, with special obligations to protect children,” highlight two members of the Expert Advisory Group on Online Safety in Canada, Dr. Emily Laidlaw and Dr. Taylor Owen, in a Op-Ed for the Toronto Star. “It’s now time for Canada to step up. It’s long overdue.”
The letter can be found on www.onlineharms.co.