Public Safety

Join the Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness for a fireside conversation with Lucy Thomas, co-founder and CEO of Project ROCKIT, Australia's youth-driven movement against bullying and online harm. Drawing on her work with young people, schools, and technology platforms, Thomas will share insights from Australia's experience and discuss what Canadian policymakers should consider as they evaluate Bill C-34.

Bill C-34 gives platforms a reason to design safer services for children. But sequencing matters: If Ottawa brings the restriction into force before the Digital Safety Commission is operational, the fastest path to compliance will be removing the very users the bill means to protect.

Watch now for an expert panel discussion on the current state of federal privacy negotiations and the path forward for Congress.

The GUARD Act would effectively ban minors from AI companions through broad age-verification requirements, raising concerns about free speech, privacy, parental authority, and the growing patchwork of state regulations. Instead, policymakers should focus on transparency, stronger parental controls, and other targeted safeguards that protect children without cutting them off from beneficial AI tools.

Alex Ambrose speaks about wearable AI in emergency response on the panel "Governance, Oversight, and Accountability in Technology Enabled Emergency Management," hosted by the NALEO Institute on Technology and AI in Emergency Management.

Watch now for a discussion on recently introduced chatbot safety bills up for debate in Congress, including the GUARD Act and CHATBOT Act, and what policymakers, parents, and platforms could do to protect children without bans.

The UK should resist the urge to regulate in haste. Protecting children online is essential, but protection should mean smarter design, stronger safety tools, and greater parental control, not blanket bans that remove technology from young people and choice from families.

A New Mexico ruling against Meta highlights how the growing patchwork of state digital regulations could fragment the U.S. internet by forcing companies to restrict or withdraw online services in certain states, underscoring the need for Congress to establish a unified federal digital policy framework.

Wearable AI improves safety and outcomes for both first responders and the public they serve. Broader adoption of wearable AI for the emergency services industry will protect the health of first responders, improve emergency response, and create safer communities.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission should shift more enforcement focus toward Chinese e-commerce platforms—like Temu and SHEIN—because, despite widespread safety violations linked to Chinese-made goods, these high-scale marketplaces face disproportionately little scrutiny despite posing significant risks to U.S. consumers.