Manitoba plans to ban social media and AI chatbots for youth – should Ontario and other provinces follow?

Manitoba’s provincial government is moving forward on a motion to ban social media and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for youth, something no other province has done.

In a New Democratic Party fundraiser on Saturday night, Premier Wab Kinew shared he plans to make the change to benefit younger minds.

“We owe the next generation of Manitobans a simple promise, freedom to be a kid,” Kinew addressed the crowd. “The focus of our society should be to train our next generation, it shouldn’t be to train the next AI model.”

He added that social media and AI only hinders youth development for tech giants’ financial gain.

“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.”

He added that the platforms were created by companies who specialize in knowing psychology and how to capitalize on the consumer’s mind.

“These are forces that contribute to anxiety and depression,” Kinew said. “These are forces that lead to young women being trafficked.”

In a post to X (formerly Twitter), Kinew said social media and AI only captures young attention and doesn’t protect it.

At the fundraiser he added children’s attention shouldn’t be used.

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

Due to the algorithmic nature of social media platforms, and similar captivation with AI applications, Kinew said childhood should be about more than that, noting kids should be learning, growing, and present as a whole.

Research posted in 2025, done under the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, found that the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which looks at the use of emotional AI with children, did not have protections in place for children’s data, as well as their biometric data and emotional data.

Additionally, the use of smart phones and social media platforms have been linked in the past to physical and mental health issues among youth, according to a study by the Canadian Medical Association Journal from 2020.

This law, if followed through to pass, means it would be the first of its kind in Canada.

Kinew did not specify next steps, and what age range he was looking to implement the ban on.

Will Ontario and other provinces follow?

Other provinces have spoken about similarly banning and controlling social media and AI to an extent.

Quebec has spoken about implementing a ban for children under the age of 16 to create social media.

Though nothing has come of it yet, a citizen-led petition has been circulating, so far garnering over 16,000 signatures.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe also highlighted an Angus Reid survey in a Facebook post, noting 75 per cent of Canadians wanted to see a full ban on social media for children under 16-years-old.

Recently, the federal government is also considering a ban for anyone under 16 in Canada.

Ahead of an April 15 meeting, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Evan Solomon, as well as Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Marc Miller said the federal government was “seriously” considering banning social media and AI for youth under 16 as well.

Ontario minister of education Paul Calandra recently said the government was considering province-wide cellphone-in-schools and social media bans for children under 16. Calandra did not specify what steps were being taken to decide on if this policy should come to pass.