The mother of Amanda Todd continues to advocate for online safety, and worries that the Online Harms Act will be lost if the current government falls before it passes.
Carol Todd recently joined a class action lawsuit brought against the biggest companies in social media, but she said Canadians might see results sooner if lawmakers would get to work on Bill C-63. Todd sees government regulation as the best way to protect children and others online, and worries that if there is an election before the bill gets passed, it will be lost.
Carol Todd is the mother of Amanda Todd, who was a victim of online sextortion and bullying. She was 15 when she posted a video that told her story in a series of flash cards, before she died by suicide weeks later, in 2012. The video was called My story: "Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm," and the original post has been viewed 15 million times.
"Here we are in 2024, and the same things are happening," said Carol Todd. "It's still a horrible mess out there for kids."
Her family joined a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court this month, as one of 11 families who say their children suffered physical and mental harms because of social media platforms. It names Meta – parent company of Facebook and Instagram – along with Snapchat, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, Discord, and Google, which owns YouTube.
READ ALSO: Amanda Todd’s family joins others in U.S. lawsuit against social media giants
The suit alleges these tech giants knowingly designed and marketed defective products to kids in order to boost engagement stats. Some kids took their lives, others developed eating disorders, depression, and had to be hospitalized.
Todd continues to advocate for online safety through the Amanda Todd Legacy Society. She said Canada has fallen behind other nations in policing social media.
"For me, it's 12 years too late, but I don't want to wait another 12 years for it to come to fruition," said Todd.
The Online Harms Act was introduced in February, ,and would make changes to the Criminal Code and other laws, to create regulations that would hold social media service providers accountable for harmful content on their platforms.
In the act, harmful content is defined as content that sexually victimizes a child or re-victimizes a survivor, intimate content communicated without consent, content used to bully a child, content that induces a child to harm themselves, content that foments hatred, content that incites violence, and content that incites violent extremism or terrorism. It would also establish a new digital safety commission and an ombudsperson as a point of contact.
Proponents say it builds on similar laws in peer countries including the UK, Australia and those in the EU.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has urged changes to sections of the bill concerning privacy, protest rights and freedom of expression.
Todd said both the government and the official opposition agree the bill is necessary, and she believes changes are workable.
"Bill C63 needs to be debated in the House of Commons before a new election," she said. "It will keep kids safet online."
– With files from Canadian Press
