Wab Kinew says Manitoba will ban social media and AI for youth

Premier Wab Kinew says Manitoba will implement a ban on social media and AI use for youth in the province. Photo by HYUNGCHEOL PARK /Postmedia

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Manitoba plans to prohibit young people from accessing social media and artificial intelligence chatbots, said Wab Kinew.

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The premier announced the policy during a speech Saturday at an event held by his left-leaning New Democratic Party.

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“Increasingly, social media and now AI chatbots are being used to hack our children’s attention spans,” Kinew said. “They have been built this way to maximize engagement and to make money for a group of tech oligarchs who do not share our values as Canadians or as Manitobans.”

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The move would put Manitoba out ahead of Canada’s federal government, which is considering national restrictions. It’s part of a global groundswell of similar regulations curbing young people’s access to tech platforms.

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Australia has legislated a ban on social media use for children under 16 to address mental health issues, cyber-bullying and sexual extortion. French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for European Union restrictions.

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A representative for Manitoba’s government said there’s no further detail yet on what age range would be affected or how the policy would be implemented by the province.

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Notwithstanding his criticism of social media, Kinew often crafts viral posts for Instagram, where he boasts 441,000 followers, more than any other Canadian premier, even though Manitoba is only the fifth most populous province.

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British Columbia, Canada’s west coast province, drafted legislation in 2024 to go after social media companies for “harms their algorithms cause people, especially kids.” However, it later placed the bill on hold and convened an online safety panel with tech companies instead.

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OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman apologized to the BC town of Tumbler Ridge on Thursday after his company didn’t alert law enforcement to the ChatGPT account of the alleged killer in one of Canada’s worst-ever mass shootings, earlier this year.

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Canada has clashed with the US government over rules affecting Silicon Valley technology companies. It withdrew plans to implement a digital sales tax last year after threats by President Donald Trump to walk away from trade talks over it.

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