Ottawa May Pull Roblox Into Its Kids Social Media Ban

Canada’s digital safety bill may yet reach gaming platforms after all. Identity Minister Marc Miller told The Globe and Mail he would consider adding child-safety rules for services such as Roblox and Discord, which sit outside Ottawa’s plan to lock kids under 16 out of social networks, tabled in June.

Bill C-34, also called the Safe Social Media Act, would force regulated social networks to keep accounts away from anyone under 16, unless a new safety watchdog grants an exemption once stronger safeguards are in place.

Child-safety groups have warned that kids and adults still mix freely on gaming and chat apps the bill does not treat as social media. Miller said those services are “a different beast,” and that they would not face the same under-16 account ban.

Discord in particular has drawn scrutiny closer to home. Filings in a U.S. court suggest the shooter behind February’s deadly attack on a school in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., used the chat app to plan the logistics of the attack.

He still left the door open. In a Friday interview, the minister said he would “absolutely consider” using regulations, including an Order in Council process already written into the bill, to pull “certain aspects of gaming” into the rules. Ideas on the table include age checks and parental controls for younger players.

Roblox itself has already started locking down chat and some experiences for users under 16 in a safety pivot announced earlier this year. Miller said he has met gaming companies and warned them that weak protections make regulation more likely, telling them “the more you start to behave in that way, the more you attract regulation.”

Australia’s under-16 social media ban offers a cautionary parallel. Experts there say many kids simply moved to smaller apps, including Roblox, that fall outside that law. Canada followed a similar path when it watched Australia go first, and Miller now says he will hear committee suggestions on how to close the gaming gap.

During second reading last week, Conservative critic Rachael Thomas asked why Roblox and Minecraft sit outside the bill when parents keep flagging grooming risks on those apps.

Miller said he does not want to stop kids from gaming, noting his own children played Minecraft when they were young. The goal, he argued, is stripping out “basic toxic features” that give predators room to operate.

Would you want Ottawa to pull Roblox and Discord into Bill C-34’s child-safety rules, or keep gaming platforms on a separate track?