We need to make sure the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) becomes law in Canada.

Youth, parents and caregivers, experts in cyberlaw, mental health, suicide prevention and child safety sectors, teachers and School Boards, Emergency Room and community health professionals are all saying enough is enough. Join us today in ensuring the Online Harms Act (OHA) is passed in Canada.

and add your voice and support the Canadian fight back against big tech.

At its core, the OHA is about curbing rampant harmful content, ending malicious ‘malgorithm’ design, and stopping unacceptable risks. To date, social media companies have knowingly, intentionally, and behind closed doors, enabled the most harmful content and crimes to flourish, bombard, target, and disproportionately impact youth – with devastating real-life consequences.

Myles Ahead has been coordinating advocacy and lobbying the Canadian Government to ensure that the OHA prevents the promotion of suicide and self-harm to children and youth which has emerged as a disturbing trend. The OHA compels social media services to protect children in relation to seven types of harms:

• Content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor;
• Intimate content communicated without consent, (“revenge porn”), including deepfakes;
• Content that incites violent extremism or terrorism;
• Content that incites violence;
• Content that foments hatred;
• Content that induces a child to harm themselves; and
• Content used to bully a child.

• Child pornography is increasing with perpetrators freely streaming and sharing files. Tools that can readily detect and prevent such material are not being used.
• In a move to shut down free speech, Elon Musk is using his millions to sue those who voice issues about child safety. He has defended the proliferation of images and accounts on X, failing to remove images of child torture posted by convicted paedophiles, forcing governments and individuals to  pursue costly legal action, repeatedly.
• Platforms started by ‘incels’ and other “ideologically motivated violent extremists” encourage suicide and self-harm as a radical act, with links to methods and a ‘community’ of pressure and support for enacting suicidal plans. Linked to the deaths of at least 45 people, including minors, and a number of young Canadians, Google refuses to actand incorporate best practice standards in suicide prevention.
• Whistleblowers testified that Meta knowingly allowed algorithm systems to push anorexia-promoting material to youth and Mark Zuckerberg ignored recommendations to protect kids.
• Fake TikTok accounts emulating children as young as 13 posting about diet and exercise were shown to be instantly, graphically, and relentlessly bombarded with disordered eating, self-harm, and suicide content.

Across the world, countries have introduced laws to better protect kids; in the US, politicians of all stripes are calling for change and say companies have “blood on their hands.”

• After being targeted by a ‘sextortionist’ on Snapchat, 16-year-old Prince Edward Island boy took his life. Despite Meta having the technology to intervene, international extortion rings target boys aged 14-24 who are tricked into exchanging explicit images online and then blackmailed.
• British Columbia teen Amanda Todd died by suicide aged 15 after being harassed, bullied and sextorted by an adult male in the Netherlands. Female victims of sextortion are more frequently blackmailed to send compromising images.
• A woman sexually abused as a young girl is now fighting to have images of her abuse removed online, suffering post-traumatic stress and continued revictimization.
• PornHub continues to drag its heels in removing child sex abuse material on its platform. Meanwhile writing op-eds in the Globe and Mail to tell us that Bill C-63 will infringe on our privacy. Where is their concern for the privacy and dignity of children?

These are clear victims of online crime. And they are part of a more insidious systemic issue that is linked to the epidemic in youth mental health, post-COVID-19.

• In Ontario, girls with eating disorders and self-harm continues to grow exponentially with researchers seeing the after-effects of COVID-19 as disproportionately gendered and linked to social media. A global trend that every emergency room is facing.
• The World Happiness Report reveals for the first time young people are the unhappiest.
• Youth report feeling “bombarded and targeted” and want a better, safer online experience.

This is a collective responsibility, not only for youth, parents, community members, and government but for the wealthiest multinational tech firms that are enabling – and actually profiting from – preventable criminal and harmful content on their sites, and on their watch. They allow stalking and harassment of children by adults that would never be tolerated, in real life, on our streets. At best, these companies have been negligent; at worst, they have facilitated crime and caused harm by design.

Just as we share responsibility to make our homes and neighbourhoods safe; just as we are obliged to create goods and services that are safe ‘in the real world’; we all have a responsibility to make our online world safer and healthier.

And this is not about curtailing private and responsible online communication and free speech. Criminal acts of child abuse, harassment, promoting violence and self-harm are not free speech; they are crimes that reveal the urgent need for better governance.

If you are appalled by the actions of big tech – and their lack of corporate social responsibility – it is time to demand safety and accountability. Join our action today by using our pre-drafted letter to write to your local Member of Parliament – just enter your postal code to get started. The letter will also CC The Right Honourable Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; The Honourable Arif Virani, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada; The Honourable Ya’Ara Saks, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health; The Honourable Maci Ien, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth; and, The Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health.