Federal Liberals voted in favour of setting 16 as the age of majority for Canadians to use social media accounts.
The party’s grassroots passed a non-binding resolution Saturday morning to restrict and place the onus on social media companies to enforce it.
Quebec MP Rachel Bendayan, who presented the idea to her caucus and championed it at the convention, said prolonged social media use can be harmful to the mental health of young Canadians.
She said social media companies need to be more accountable and stop allowing young children to use technologies designed to be addictive.
Bendayan also said she was astonished by how many youth she personally spoke with who support the idea.
“I was very surprised to see so many teenagers and people within the age group I was targeting tell me they were in favour of this resolution, in part because they felt they have no choice but to be on social media,” she told reporters after the vote.
“It’s not a ban for a ban’s sake. It’s something that would change the way society operates at the moment.”
Resolution not binding on governing party
The resolution sets out party policy, but because it’s not binding on the governing party, it won’t directly lead to a ban.
Carter Scott, a 17-year-old Liberal attending his first convention, said he’s frustrated that young people didn’t get a chance to chime in on the debate on the convention floor this weekend.
And he says he doesn’t trust the social media platforms to handle the data used to verify a person’s age, such as government IDs or facial recognition.
“There has been a significant risk and significant concerns where this policy has been introduced is if there’s been a breach — as is likely — of the data, where thousands of Canadians — young people, seniors, whoever — could have their data leaked,” Scott said.
Bendayan said this is just the start of a wider conversation about the policy position, including how to ensure it does not pose privacy risks. She said Canadians should hear more from young people, teachers, psychologists and medical experts about the issue.
“We’re in the early stages of having this debate, and what today did was kick off what I hope will be a national conversation.”
Widespread public support for a youth social media ban
An Angus Reid poll from March suggested widespread support for the idea.
The polling agency found as much as three-quarters of Canadians support a full ban on social media use for Canadians under the age of 16. Because it was an online survey rather than a probability telephone sample, it does not have a margin of error.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said last month that the idea “merits an open and considered debate in Canada,” although he does not yet have a settled view on it and noted there are good points on both sides.
Australia put age limits on social media last year
Australia became the first country last December to enact a law enforcing age limits on accounts and to introduce fines for social media companies found non-compliant.
The Liberals also adopted a similar resolution on Saturday to set age restrictions for chatbots that run on artificial intelligence over similar concerns about the technology affecting the mental health of youth.
It says the government should limit the use of “all AI chatbots and other potentially harmful forms of AI interaction” to Canadians over the age of 16.
That includes popular software such as ChatGPT, which people now commonly turn to for advice or even to have full conversations.
Other Liberal resolutions at party conference
Meantime, the Liberals shot down two dueling resolutions on electoral reform — one endorsing ranked ballots and another proportional representation.
A third, much broader resolution on measures for “safeguarding democracy” passed and commits to “explore proportional representation” in the future.
Another controversial resolution that called for the party to restrain provinces from overusing the notwithstanding clause through a constitutional measure called “disallowance” was also shot down by party members.
Two Quebec MPs — Patricia Lattanzio and Joël Lightbound, the prime minister’s Quebec lieutenant — both notably spoke out against the resolution on the convention floor.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 11, 2026.