Beyond Online Harm Protection: Upholding the Best Interests of the Child in Canada’s Digital Age
- UNICEF Team uOttawa
- Nov 20
- 4 min read
Zeyneb Merabet - Awareness Content Reporter
The younger generations, having been born in the digital age, are known as being more tech-savvy than those before them, a trait that can be beneficial for learning and connecting. The internet, a tool of remarkable power, can be a place for children to self-express and discover their creativity. However, along with these incredible opportunities found notably on social media, comes a landscape filled with serious risks. Children are exposed to a series of dangers online such as bullying, sexual exploitation and promotion of self-harm. Such exposure has led some children to enter the criminal justice system as consequences. The more a child spends time online, the more vulnerable they become to the harms of the internet. They may encounter a series of online abuse such as cyberbullying, grooming and even sexual exploitation (Braga, 2023). Putting words to numbers, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports around 200 million children that have been sexually abused every year, with a large portion of these abuses occurring online or are captured and digitally distributed. It is also reported that only a small fraction of total Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) are found in INTERPOL databases and therefore a lot of these abuses go undetected (UNESCO, 2019). Children can be exposed to abuse from a series of platforms online, and contrary to popular beliefs, these abuses are not limited to strangers online only. These dangers and faults in legal systems are growing concerns around the world and in Canada as well.
Bill C-63 marks a significant effort by the Canadian government to address growing dangers that the digital world poses to children. Also known as the Online Harm Act, this bill was designed to ensure safer online environments through new laws and regulations that tackle issues of numerous online risks, especially sexual exploitation and exposure to hate speech. Although the implementation of such a bill is an important step in recognizing the government and private actors’ responsibility to protect children's rights online, a series of amendments and recommendations must be implemented to ensure that the “best interests” of the children are at the core of this bill. UNICEF proposes recommendations that will redirect Bill C-63 regulations into more child-rights-focused due to the high rates of unreported harms (UNICEF Canada, 2024).
Canada has been a key actor in protecting human rights globally. Notably, its international commitments to endorse the Convention on the Rights of the Child places Canada in a position where it obligated itself to respect, protect and fulfill children’s rights. However, these responsibilities do not fall on the government's shoulders alone. According to Article 3.1 of the Convention, not only the government but also digital content platforms and other private actors in the digital world must act and implement decisions that strive for the best interests of children. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment No. 25 highlights that their fundamental rights extend to the digital world, emphasizing that children are also entitled to freedom of expression, privacy, and protection from violence and exploitation online. Yet, technologies that enable constant surveillance, harmful targeted advertising, and even the spread of misinformation, infringe children’s rights by attempting to shape their behavior and beliefs in detrimental ways. Violations of these rights can have irreparable damages. They can range from children’s development being impaired to increased encounters with the justice system to increase in self-harm that can lead to loss of life (UNICEF Canada, 2024).
UNICEF Key Recommendations
As noted multiple times in this report, the purpose of these recommendations made by UNICEF is for Bill C-63’s regulations to transcend to the simple concept of “duty to protect” but rather that the best interests of the child be a central guiding principle for these regulations. This entails that further rights beyond protection from harm must be explicitly acknowledged in the bill including: the right to privacy, access to information, non-discrimination and access to justice, for example. UNICEF also urges Canada to make Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) mandatory for private and public actors in the tech sectors. Internationally, legislations and regulations mandate the Human Rights Due Diligence, which include impact assessments such as the CRIA, to review if and how organizations are held accountable when it comes to assessing how their operations affect children. This emphasis on organizations’ responsibilities, particularly services providers online, is further defended by UNICEF when the question of “parental control” arises. It is noted in the recommendations that not the children nor the parents should bear the main responsibilities for children’ safety. The government, through this bill, should ensure that all platforms, including encrypted messaging ones omitted in this bill, should implement CRIAs and further develop their digital plans to not only safeguard children’ rights, but to act in their best interests.
Furthermore, the proposed penalties in this bill could potentially disproportionately criminalize children themselves in Canada. One-third of cybercrime accusers between 2018 and 2022 were between the ages of 12 and 17. UNICEF calls for alternatives to the criminal justice responses when dealing with children and their offences as many are victims of manipulation and propaganda. UNICEF reinforces the need for prevention through education and digital literacy. The bill focuses on the following seven categories of harmful content found online that involve children, such as: content that sexually victimizes a child or re-victimizes a survivor and content used to bully a child. However, major risks such as privacy violations and manipulation through algorithms, are overlooked and should be added in this bill as it could pose a serious issue when trying to safeguard children from online harm (UNICEF Canada, 2024).
Sources
Braga, A. (2023, March 21). The risks for children surfing the internet. Humanium. Retrieved November 10, 2025, from https://www.humanium.org/en/the-risks-for-children-surfing-the-internet/
UNESCO, Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, & International Telecommunication Union. (2019). Child online safety: minimizing the risk of violence, abuse and exploitation online. UNESCO Digital Library. Retrieved November 10, 2025, from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374365.locale=en
UNICEF Canada. (2024, August). Ensuring the Best Interests of Children in Canada’s Response to Online Harms. In UNICEF Canada Policy Brief: Bill C-63. UNICEF Canada. https://www.unicef.ca/sites/default/files/2024-08/7_UNICEF%20_Canada_Policy_Brief_Bill_C_63_Best_Interests_of_Children_in_Canada%27s_Response_to_Online_Harms_2024.pdf
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