Should access to social media platforms and AI chatbots be banned for kids 16 years of age and younger? In Manitoba, this is one of the most contentious questions to arise in a long time. At an April NDP fundraising gala, Premier Wab Kinew announced his party’s intention to do just that.

Should the government follow through, Manitoba will be the first Canadian province to make this move, although similar conversations are taking place in Saskatchewan and Quebec. 

“Our responsibility as politicians is to try and protect young minds while the brains are still developing, while the judgment is still being formed, while resilience is still in development,” Kinew says.

At this stage, Kinew has acknowledged that the details of how such a ban could work still need to be worked out. What is clear, though, is that the premier intends to hold social media companies responsible for ensuring that it happens.

In December 2025, Australia was the first country in the world to implement such a ban. There, laws restrict social media companies from providing accounts to anyone under the age of 16, under the threat of fines in the tens of millions.

When the Australian law rolled out, social media companies were also required to deactivate existing accounts belonging to youth.

Kinew says that any legislation coming in Manitoba isn’t intended to do the job of the parent but rather to scaffold them as they navigate this tough terrain with their kids.

“This is really important for the mental health of young people,” Kinew says. “It’s the freedom for young people to be kids while they’re growing up. You have these massive tech oligarchs who have made themselves unprecedently rich by giving preteen girls body issues, exposing young people to human trafficking, and putting toxic content in front of preteen boys… Just to be clear, the accountability is not to be on the parents, or the family, or the kid. The accountability will rest on the big tech platforms.”

According to a recent Angus Reid Institute poll, 75 percent of Canadians support such a ban, citing that kids are at greater risk of mental health issues, negative peer pressure, and accessing misinformation due to these online platforms.

The Citizen put the question to social media users across Niverville and Ritchot to get some local feedback, resulting in an unprecedented number of responses.

“I am 100 percent behind this,” writes one female respondent. “Too many young children are exploited online, myself included.”

A middle guidance counsellor, Tara Routhier, says that she supports the ban.

“I am happy that we are seeing less phone [use] in the school and class,” Routhier says. “Unfortunately, our middle school students are still at risk online [as they] talk with strangers and receive inappropriate messages and photos. As well, students deal with bullying, embarrassment and meanness on social media.”

While it can be a useful tool for learning, Routhier says, it’s a tool that comes with grave downsides.

“I had one student who received over 20,000 [Snapchat photos and videos] in a short period,” she adds. “In Grade Six, a student was ready to meet a stranger and in Grade Seven. [I saw] eating disorders, self harm, and suicidal ideation. I think the premier is recognizing the harm and trying to make a plan. I think we should work together.”

Many parents, too, are grateful for any legislation that will help safeguard their kids.

“As a parent, I feel better knowing my kids aren’t constantly exposed to harmful content or online pressure,” says Bre-Ann Boulet of Niverville. “Social media is changing so fast and we still don’t really understand the long-term effects it can have on kids. It’s also incredibly hard to monitor everything they see, so this takes away a lot of stress and worry.”

Boulet is not alone. Many agree on the merit of holding social media companies accountable for problems among young people that mental health and medical professional shave been warning about for years.

On the other hand, others believe that poor parenting is to blame.

“Social media and AI isn’t the problem,” writes another respondent. “This is just lazy parenting. You don’t make rules in your own home, so the government had to for you. There are all kinds of tools to limit what kids have access to, and if they figure out how to get around that, I assure you, they’ll be smart enough to get around whatever the government attempts to put in place.”

Tony Donovan warns that legislating social media will have its risks, too.

“Social media connects people, and AI is a tool kids will eventually need to learn,” Donovan says. “We’re in a toxic extreme now, but swinging to the other extreme isn’t progress. It’s just a different problem.”

A contingent of Manitobans stand against the proposed legislation, believing the governmental manoeuvre to be a smokescreen. Many of them cite the problem of government surveillance, calling it a veiled attempt to exert more control under the guise of safety.

Others point to similar concerns related to data collection. Requiring social media users to provide a proof of age could lead to more opportunities for bad actors to collect personal and private information.

Cooper Lavin, a 16-year-old from Niverville, has an entirely different perspective on why legislation like this could have negative ramifications.

 “I think that for some kids, online connections are their best friends and support systems,” says Lavin. “I’m worried that some anxious or neurodivergent kids will truly suffer from this decision. Also, I’m concerned about gay or trans kids who live in a place where they feel they can’t come out. For those people, this could be a catastrophic decision that takes away their only connection to like-minded people.”

Mylène Gagné-Colliou agrees with this concern, although she still supports the ban proposal.

“For some [social media] is a safe space to express themselves if they cannot do it openly in their home and community. But in the overall picture of things, it should be banned,” Gagné-Colliou says. “It’s sad to see kids steer away from play and social interaction and default immediately to a tablet screen.”

According to Angel Castenada, losing access to social media, in this day and age, is akin to taking away a child’s right to use a telephone in the 1990s.

“One of my kids plays D&D with some of his friends, and he wants to have a way to stay in touch with them in between games, since they don’t all live in town,” says Castenada. “He sees me doing that with my friends, and he’d like something similar. The reality is that there is no standard alternative out there right now. Kids his age don’t have phone numbers, texting, or WhatsApp yet.”

In the end, Castenada wonders whether the landline phone should make a comeback.

Regardless of the varying sentiments regarding Kinew’s plan for legislation, it’s full steam ahead for now.

“Our kids will never be for sale, and their attention and childhoods should never be profited from,” Kinew says.