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In Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe and parts of the United States 鈥� though not in Canada, at least not yet 鈥� lawmakers are pledging to protect kids from an increasingly dark digital realm where the flashy, outrageous and most addictive prevail.

To do it, governments are banning younger teens from social networks entirely, forcing companies to proactively block harmful content and put hard-to-crack adults-only locks on sexually explicit websites.

It will make for difficult dinner table conversations with the kids, no doubt. Try announcing to a 13-year-old whose every spare moment is filled with TikTok dances and Instagram stories that their access is to be revoked.

The technology being used to verify and estimate the age of users 鈥� and which is emerging as the future requirement before logging on to Snapchat or Reddit or X or PornHub 鈥� has also sparked debate.

It is pitting porn sites against tech titans and advocates of free speech against those of child protection.

What is not up for discussion, though, is that something must change.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been 20 years that we鈥檝e been having these discussions and every parent knows that there鈥檚 a ton of inappropriate content that their kids are being exposed to 鈥� content that we use to all agree that they should not be exposed to before the internet and social media was around,鈥� said Jacques Marcoux, director of research and analytics at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection in Winnipeg.

French President Emmanuel Macron tapped into this frustration after a teenage student with a knife attacked and killed a school monitor earlier this month. He blamed the shocking act of violence on the rise of overwhelmed single-parent families and the harmful influence of social media.

鈥淲e have to ban social media for those under the age of 15,鈥� Macron said in reaction to the killing, adding that he would push for the European Union to establish continent-wide rules or, if they were not forthcoming, he would push ahead alone. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 wait.鈥�

Australia already passed the world鈥檚 first law that, by the end of this year, will block children under the age of 16 from some of the world鈥檚 most popular apps 鈥� a message that 鈥渦ntil a child turns 16, the social media environment as it stands is not age appropriate for them,鈥� then-communications minister Michelle Anne Rowland in charge said last November.

The ban could potentially reduce the incidence of cyberbullying, unwanted sexual solicitation and the cases of depression, self-harm and suicidal behaviour that has been linked to social-media use among children, wrote Jasmine Fardouly, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney鈥檚 School of Psychology.

It could also restrict 鈥減ositive social media experiences, such as social support and connections for marginalized groups,鈥� .

The Aussies have given themselves 12 months to test the technologies that could be used to comply with the law. The obligatory age-verification or estimation process must be capable of keeping young kids out without relying on the use of official documents, such as a passport or driver鈥檚 license.

It鈥檚 a legal fence that many countries are straddling in a bid to satisfy those who want to protect children and those who want to protect privacy.

Britain鈥檚 communications regulator, Ofcom, is forcing online service providers to conduct mandatory age checks if their platforms feature pornography and to take proactive steps, up to and including age verification, to protect children from online harms.

鈥淲e invented age verification for pornography,鈥� said Iain Corby, Executive Director of the Age Verification Providers Association, a London-based industry group. Verification was rather straight forward in the early days. A credit card, driver鈥檚 license, bank account or passport would serve as proof of age, just like in offline life.

鈥淎s it became clear that we wanted to try and do this for younger people under 18, none of those things were available. So, the industry innovated and came up with estimation tools,鈥� Corby said.

Having a user flash his or her face in front of a camera for a few moments of digital analysis, is the most straightforward and probably the most accurate method available.

The hiccup 鈥� that users are required to show their face 鈥� is a big one. There may be no qualms about doing to so to unlock a personal iPhone, but it is bound to make sheepish consumers of adult content think twice.

Other services estimate age by checking a person鈥檚 email against online databases to determine how long it has been active.

The new regimes coming into place oblige the age-checkers to delete personal information as soon as it has been processed. For those concerned about leaving even the faintest digital trace, a French firm, , promises total anonymity by estimating age through an analysis of hand gestures.

The more fundamental question is whether age checks are really the way to go and, if so, who should do them.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on a arguing that age-verification laws applied to porn sites violate the First Amendment rights of adults. The website operators say that users鈥� fear of identity theft or the exposure of their online predilections end up deterring them from submitting to the new standards.

Aylo, the Canadian-owned company that runs PornHub, the world鈥檚 best known adult site, with the French government. Earlier this month, it blocked access to French users in response to age-verification requirements that the company said were unfairly applied to 17 companies while letting others off the hook.

Service was restored this week after a judge temporarily suspended the government order until a court could rule on the legal challenge.

Aylo says it supports measures that prevent children from accessing its content, but argues that obliging individual sites to keep out the kids 鈥渄oes not work鈥� and risks exposing legal adult users 鈥渢o privacy breaches and hacks.鈥�

Instead, it says user ages should be tracked on individual phones, tablets and computers. This would shift the onus 鈥� as well as the costs and legal responsibility 鈥� to tech giants Apple, Google and Microsoft.

In the global race to rein in the internet and make it safer for delicate young minds, Canada is trailing the pack. Technically, following this spring鈥檚 election, it鈥檚 not even on the track.

In early 2024, the previous Liberal government introduced the , which included measures to criminalize online acts of hate, oblige website operators to remove harmful content and force them to adopt 鈥渁ge-appropriate design鈥� to protect younger users.聽

The bill proposed creating a Digital Safety Commission and Ombudsperson to enforce the new rules and regulations. But there were no explicit measures proposing age blocks for mature or adult content.

鈥淛ust to put age-appropriate measures, or something of that nature, was not doing it for me. It鈥檚 like saying, 鈥楻egulate yourselves, do what you think is right,鈥欌�� said Independent Sen. Julie Miville-Dech锚ne, who introduced her own in the Senate that would have made it a crime to make sexually explicit material available to to children on the internet.

She worried that the government bill left the possibility of imposing age-verification measures up to the future federal commission 鈥� a much-too consequential step to be left to appointees and civil servants, in her opinion.

Her Senate bill and the government bill both died when the last Parliament was prorogued and the federal election was called. Miville-Dech锚ne has refined and re-introduced . But Prime Minister Mark Carney鈥檚 government, which has put all of its focus on protecting and growing the Canadian economy, has given no indication about if or when it plans to resurrect the online safety initiatives.

The more time passes, the more Canada lags in the common effort to clean up the internet for kids.

鈥淭he longer that we delay this, the further behind we fall,鈥� said Marcoux, of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. 鈥淚t鈥檚 true to say that kids in the U.K. and kids in Australia, they likely have a safer online experience than Canadian kids because of it.鈥�

It鈥檚 also important for Canada to act in partnership with other nations in order to reach a critical threshold beyond which social media companies and pornography providers are forced to shape up or ship out.

鈥淚f more and more countries decide that this is not acceptable to feed kids with this,鈥� said Miville-Dech锚ne, 鈥渁t one point they will have to change because we can cut the signals.鈥�