VICTORIA — British Columbia’s attorney general is calling on social media giant Meta to implement the same protections for Canadian children who use its platforms that American children will receive. The company that operates Facebook and Instagram is imposing new child protection measures as part of a massive legal settlement in the United States but it says they won’t be enacted in Canada. Niki Sharma says Canadian children deserve the same protections, including age-related content restrictions, age-verification and features to reduce excessive use of its platforms. She says the changes in the United States “demonstrate that stronger safeguards for children and youth are both possible and necessary.” Sharma says there are many lawsuits in Canada against social media platforms, but families shouldn’t have to wait for the cases to be resolved to see the benefits described in the U.S. settlement. Meta last week reached a settlement worth up to US$18 billion that ended a landmark trial over teen social media addiction and settled claims filed by nearly every U.S. state. The company agreed to adopt a series of safety features as part of the settlement. They include two-hour daily time limits that count toward both Instagram and Facebook and which can only be disabled with a parent’s permission. It will also block teen access to its apps between midnight and 6 a.m. and eliminate push notifications during school hours. Meta also says it will allow teens to turn off autoplay and that it will hide the number of likes and reactions for teens by default, as well as disable cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters for teen users. — With files from The Associated Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 31, 2026.
