04:40 AM EDT, 06/11/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Canada's government on Wednesday proposed new legislation that would bar children under 16 years old from accessing social media platforms such as Meta Platforms' ( META ) Facebook and Instagram and Elon Musk's X unless the companies meet specific safety standards.

The proposed Safe Social Media Act also addresses AI chatbots.

The bill is meant to make sure that "digital services are transparent and accountable for the risks their services create," according to the Canadian government website.

Among the behaviors the bill seeks to target are the distribution of "intimate content" without consent, content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor, anything induces a child to harm themselves, content used to bully a child, content that "foments hatred," incites violence, or is connected to terrorism or violent extremism, the government said.

The proposed law calls for the establishment of a commission to enforce rules, support victims, and broadly oversee social media platforms, which could be granted an exemption to the minimum age requirement "if they have established and maintained sufficient safeguards for children on their platform," the government said.