Hello to any fellow Canadians, you may have heard about the proposed bill Bill C-34 (if you haven't learn more here), that which bans social media for children under 16, but what you might not know is the proposed bill would require all adults to provide their ID to a third party verification service before accessing the internet. These verification services are notorious for data leaks, and there is currently no safe age verification service. It also means giving all your personal info and an image of your ID to an unknown third party. Which is a huge invasion of privacy.
So what can you do? Contact your MP! Find out who your MP is and their email contact info here. (even better if you can send them a physical letter, politicians love those for some reason)
The Reddit user EmbassedHelp has provided a great email template for you to use:
Here it is in a easy copy and paste format:
Subject: Protect Canadians' Privacy: Oppose Bill C-34's Mandatory Age Verification Requirements
Dear [Prime Minister/Minister/MP Name],
I am writing to urge you to reject the mandatory age verification and age assurance requirements in Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, which would impose these measures across social media platforms, Al chatbot services, and adult content websites, including requirements previously proposed under Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne's Bill S-209.
Mandatory age verification and age assurance as a condition of accessing lawful online content is an unacceptable threat to Canadians' privacy when accessing social media platforms, artificial intelligence systems, and adult content websites. Requiring individuals to verify their age to access lawful online content creates new opportunities for data breaches, surveillance, and misuse of sensitive personal information. In the case of sensitive or stigmatized personal information like adult content, data breaches can cause permanent and irreparable harm. These requirements create records and metadata that link a person's offline identity to their online activity. They also disproportionately target marginalized groups, such as the LGBTQ community. Once this infrastructure exists, its scope consistently expands beyond its stated purpose as seen in other countries.
There is no such thing as private or anonymous age verification. Canadians deserve more privacy online, not less.
Protecting kids should not come at the cost of violating the privacy of all Canadians. I urge you to focus on better parental controls for parents, restrictions on K-12 school WiFi, and targeting services marketed as explicitly for kids. This would be in line with the recent Angus Reid survey on social media age bans, where 72% of Canadians said parents, and not the government, should be the ones enforcing the bans. Most Canadian parents already take measures to restrict their kids' technology and internet use. We should be supporting parents with better parental controls, instead of trying to force companies to violate Canadians' privacy.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Optional Postal Code]
[City], [Province]
Please spread the word far and wide, they are trying to push this thing through fast, and we need them to know it's not acceptable the way it is currently written.