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Front Burner

Ottawa threatens big tech with kids’ social media ban

6/11/202630 min

Canada has introduced new legislation that puts big tech social platforms on notice: change your platforms to make them safer for kids, or children under the age of 16 will be banned from using them.

 

Taylor Owen is back on the show to walk us through the proposed Safe Social Media Act and how it’d be enforced. He’s the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications at McGill University. He was also part of an expert panel advising the government on online harms, and a member of the AI Strategy Task Force.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Clips

Hooking Kids: Platform Tactics
Ban vs Moratorium Debate
Chatbot Safety Obligations Explained
Lab Audit Exposes Chatbot Risks
Age Restrictions as Compliance Stick
Yearly Shift in Tech Governance

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Speaker 10:00

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  2. Speaker 20:28

    [digital jingle] This is a CBC podcast.

  3. Aaron Wherry· Host0:32

    [gentle music] Hi, I'm Aaron Werre, in for Jamie. Canada has put big tech social platforms on notice. Change your platforms to make them more safe for kids, or children under the age of 16 will be banned from using them. But the federal government stopped short of doing the same for AI chatbots. Taylor Owen is back on the show to walk us through the new Safe Social Media Act. He's the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics, and Communications at McGill University. He was part of an expert panel advising the government on online harms and a member of the AI Strategy Task Force. [gentle music] Hey, Taylor.

  4. Taylor Owen· Guest1:20

    Hey. Good to hear from you.

  5. Aaron Wherry· Host1:21

    So a list of online harms could conceivably be pretty long.

  6. Taylor Owen· Guest1:26

    Mm.

  7. Aaron Wherry· Host1:26

    What kind of harms specifically is the government targeting with this

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