Hon. Julie Miville-Dechêne: Minister, Canada still has no legislation to protect children from online harm because governments have been slow-walking the issue for the past five years. The threats, however, keep growing. Minors are using dating apps that place them at the mercy of pedophiles. Children also have access to pornographic chatbots created by artificial intelligence. When will restrictions be imposed? When will mandatory age assurance requirements be introduced to protect Canada’s children?
Hon. Sean Fraser, P.C., M.P., Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency: Thank you for the question. I mentioned a bill that I’m about to table in a few weeks. It includes measures for protecting children from online harm through Canada’s criminal justice system.
In addition to the criminal reforms we are looking at regarding online exploitation and child luring through ever-changing and rapidly changing technology, there are more reforms we are considering as a government.
Those reforms are being led, when we are dealing with the regulation of platforms, for example, by some of my colleagues on whose behalf I don’t want to speak, but, notably, our ministers responsible for culture and identity and for artificial intelligence are engaging in this conversation right now to understand how they can advance some of these reforms.
They are going to complement some of the criminal reforms we put in place with the goal we all share of protecting our kids in an ever-changing online environment, which, as I’m a parent of young children who are increasingly being exposed to technology, is a pressing concern not just nationally but in my own household.
Senator Miville-Dechêne: I want to hear you speak to the substance of that bill because the need for action is urgent, especially with the arrival of artificial intelligence, as you said. In Quebec, a mother recently revealed that her teenage son had been using chatbots to create blood-curdling rape scenarios in which he was the attacker. Some children have become addicted to robot companions that encourage self-harm, suicide and violence. Is that the kind of society you want, as the father of young children?
Mr. Fraser: Clearly not. No one in Canada, regardless of partisan affiliation, whether we hold seats in the House of Commons or the Senate or are simply right-minded human beings, wants that kind of society to emerge.
What is important, though, is we actually figure out what solutions are available to us and how we can implement them in a way that is going to be able to respond to technology, which is evolving at a pace faster than governments typically have the ability to operate at or respond to.
These are challenging conversations. Some of the solutions will be, when we can identify who the perpetrator of criminal activity is, to hold them accountable. Others will require us to figure out how we can ensure that the platforms Canadians have access to are subject to a regulatory environment designed to protect kids rather than allow these platforms to profit off them.