Canada's Federal Liberals made news this week with a resolution to ban social media for kids under 16. As a parent, I understand the instinct. When you see what these platforms are doing to children, you want to shut the door. But here's the hard truth: the door isn't the problem. What's behind it is. An age limit doesn't change the algorithm. It doesn't stop the features that are deliberately designed to hook young people the moment they sign up. A 16-year-old walking onto Instagram for the first time deserves more than a later start. They deserve a platform that isn't engineered to exploit them. If Canada stops at an age limit, we've missed the point entirely. That's why we're not stopping.
To everyone who's signed KidsNotClicks: you saw this coming. You signed because you knew this wasn't just a phase or a parenting problem. You knew it was a design problem. And right now, the rest of the world is catching up fast.
Last month, a jury of 12 people in Los Angeles spent eight days reviewing the evidence and reached a verdict that should send a chill through every boardroom in Silicon Valley.
They found Meta and YouTube legally liable for building platforms deliberately designed to be addictive, and that those design choices caused real harm to a real young person. The platforms' own internal research had shown the damage for years. They knew. They built it anyway. The courts are finally saying: that's not acceptable.
Canada needs to say it too, loudly, and in law.
KidsNotClicks is calling on our federal government to go beyond age limits and regulate how these algorithms are allowed to operate, require real transparency and independent oversight, and make the consequences meaningful when companies put engagement ahead of kids' safety.
We're 594 strong and the momentum is real. But Ottawa only moves when the pressure doesn't let up. Share this petition today. Send it to one parent, one teacher, one person who needs to see it.
Every signature matters. Every share matters. Let's keep going.
change.org/KidsNotClicks