New Brunswick's Liberal government has tabled a bill that would let a provincial regulator pursue app, game and social media companies over “unfair practices” aimed at users under 16, with fines of up to $5 million, prison terms of up to five years less a day, or both, and with the burden on the company to prove its innocence.

Justice Minister Robert McKee introduced Bill 12, An Act Respecting Young Persons, Digital Markets and Technology Use, on November 3. Its first part, the Young Consumers in Digital Markets Act, would be enforced by the Financial and Consumer Services Commission, whose investigators would hold “all the powers, authorities and immunities of a peace officer as defined in the Criminal Code (Canada).”

The bill states that “the onus is on the provider to prove that the provider has not engaged in the unfair practice.” It applies to any provider that knows or ought to know that under-16s use its service, and McKee told CBC that “The legislation will apply to any company whether they have a physical office in Canada or not.”

The government's release calls the act the first legislation of its kind in Canada and says it complements federal Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, which would bar under-16s from social media and which McKee said had just passed second reading in Ottawa. McKee said: “We know kids are online, and it is our responsibility to make decisions that will help them be safe while they are online.”

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The release does not mention age verification. Reclaim The Net, a digital rights outlet, argues that a law which punishes companies for how they treat under-16s, and makes them prove they did not, can only be obeyed by checking the age of everyone.

CBC reported that the commission gets no new money for the job and that the law would not give it powers to moderate or ban content. Green MLA Megan Mitton said the regulator would need more resources to take on large companies.

McKee, a Moncton lawyer and King's Counsel, has been MLA for Moncton Centre as a Liberal since 2018 and was interim Leader of the Opposition in 2022 and 2023. He was named Justice Minister and Attorney General when Premier Susan Holt's cabinet was sworn in on November 2, 2024.

The bill is at first reading. Cellphone limits for grades 9 to 12 under the same act take effect in February 2027.

Ottawa wants under-16s off social media; Fredericton wants a peace-officer regulator and a reverse onus to go with it. If Reclaim The Net is right, the companies will not just be asking children how old they are. They will be asking everyone.