Joint Call to Action: Countdown for Kids
Protecting Canada's Children Online
On February 26, 2024, the Government of Canada tabled the Online Harms Act, acknowledging, at last, the growing dangers children face online.
What followed was not action, but delay.
This clock now counts how long children have been waiting for meaningful federal action to protect them online. Every day, every hour on this timer represents time lost — time during which children continue to be targeted, exploited, and harmed in digital spaces designed without their safety in mind.
The Countdown for Kids did not end on December 31. It evolved.
Because while the calendar turned, the risks did not disappear. Children are still being harmed. Families are still waiting. And Canada still lacks a comprehensive, enforceable online safety law.
This is no longer a countdown to a date, it is a record of how long children have been left unprotected after solutions were already on the table.
Today, on National Child Day (November 20, 2025) — when Canada renews its promise to uphold the rights of its 8 million children — the Countdown for Kids begins.
At 12:00 p.m. ET, the clock will start ticking.
We will count down the days and hours until midnight on December 31, 2025.
That moment — 40 days from National Child Day — is the final deadline for the Government of Canada to reintroduce the Online Harms Act and rename it the Online Safety Act.
We won’t end this year without ensuring that this gets done. We refuse to enter a new year, sacrificing one more child to online harms.
A Crisis
That Demands Urgent Action
Children and young people across Canada continue to experience online bullying, sexual exploitation, extortion, and harassment at alarming rates. Platforms profit while safeguards lag behind. Mental health suffers. Trust erodes. In the most tragic cases, lives are lost.
For years, children, parents, survivors, and advocates have spoken out — at parliamentary committees, public inquiries, and in the national media. They have shared painful, deeply personal stories to demand change and prevent harm to others. Many of the recommendations to protect children are well known. Too many remain unimplemented.
The passage of time does not lessen the urgency — it magnifies it.
The Countdown for Kids exists to ensure this moment is not forgotten or quietly deferred. It is a collective demand for leadership, accountability, and a clear public commitment from Canada’s political leaders to finally put children’s safety ahead of delay, division, or digital profits.
No more stalling.
No more half-measures.
No more accepting harm as inevitable.
Children have waited long enough.
It’s time to act.
This is not a policy debate. It’s a national emergency — the kind that demands every Parliamentarian set aside politics and stand together for our children.
Young people are being targeted, bullied, extorted, and exploited online, often with devastating and irreversible consequences. Their mental health is crumbling. Their dignity is violated. Their safety is being overridden by profit and design. Children are dying. Their lives are on the line.
For years, children and parents have taken to Parliament Hill, public inquiries, and national media, asking for action. They have shared their grief and deeply personal experiences, not because they wanted to relive their pain, but because they believed change was possible. Yet the most urgent recommendations remain unfulfilled.
We refuse to carry this legacy of inaction into 2026. This must end. Now.
The Countdown for Kids is not just symbolic; it represents the limited time we have to act before more children are hurt.
No more waiting. No more excuses. It’s time to protect our kids.
Our Demand:
Introduce the Online Harms Act by December 31, 2025
The Online Harms Act must be transformational, bold, and child-centred. We demand the following non-negotiable elements in the proposed legislation:
- A powerful, independent regulator with the authority to enforce compliance, levy meaningful fines, audit platforms, and provide transparency reporting to Canadians.
- A legally binding duty of care for platforms to actively prevent and address child sexual exploitation, harassment, grooming, cyberbullying, hate speech, and addictive platform design.
- Mandatory age-appropriate design standards, default privacy protections, and prohibition of features that knowingly cause harm to children (e.g., algorithmic amplification of harmful content, anonymous adult-child messaging).
- Clear criminal and civil consequences for platforms that fail to remove harmful or illegal content involving minors in a timely and transparent way. This must include strengthened laws addressing non-consensual image sharing, cyberextortion, and the creation or distribution of AI-generated sexual or abusive content involving children.
- Redress for victims, including accessible tools to report violations, remove harmful content, and access psychological, legal, and financial support.
- Data transparency and mandatory reporting from platforms, enabling public accountability, research, and constant improvement of risk mitigation.
- Equity and harm prevention at the core, ensuring protections for all children, with special consideration for Indigenous, racialized, disabled, 2SLGBTQ+ and other children who are disproportionately impacted.
A Nation-Building Priority
Canada’s future is written in the lives of its youngest citizens. Our children are the heartbeat of this country, and their safety, dignity, and freedom to thrive are the foundation on which our collective future stands.
We don’t hesitate to protect children in the physical world. We mandate seatbelts. We build safer playgrounds. We write policies to guard their well-being in schools and communities. Yet in the digital world where children now spend so much of their time, we have left them exposed.
Protecting children online is not optional. It is not a “nice-to-have.”
It is a non-negotiable act of nation-building. Protecting children online is how we show, in the clearest terms, what kind of country we are, and what kind of future we’re fighting for.
Our Commitment, Together
We, the undersigned:
Demand the introduction of the Online Safety Act before midnight on December 31, 2025
Pledge to launch the Countdown for Kids on National Child Day through media, advocacy, and direct engagement with Parliament
Stand united alongside parents who’ve lost children, survivors of cyber violence, and the young people bravely leading the call for change
Refuse to allow another year to begin in which children are left unprotected by law.
In Loving Tribute
As we launch the Countdown for Kids, we hold in our hearts the young people across Canada whose lives have been taken or forever altered by online harms.
- Amanda Todd, 15
- Rehtaeh Parsons, 17
- Carson Cleland, 12
- Daniel Lints, 17
- Harry Burke, 17
Their lives were full of possibility. Their pain was preventable.
As we count down the days to December 31, 2025, we do so in their memory and in honour of every child who has suffered, and those still at risk today.
We will not let this year end without doing what is necessary to protect the children of Canada.
No more waiting. No more excuses. It’s time to protect our kids.
Sign the Petition
By signing this form, you will be publicly listed as a supporter of the Joint Call to Action urging the Government of Canada to act without further delay on federal online safety legislation that meaningfully protects children. Supporters are calling for the government to advance a strong, enforceable Online Safety Act — one that clearly prioritizes children’s rights, safety, and well-being in digital spaces.
The Countdown for Kids campaign was launched on National Child Day (November 20, 2025) with the support of a powerful and growing coalition of organizations, including: Children First Canada, the Canadian Medical Association, SickKids, CHEO, IWK Health Centre, McMaster Children’s Hospital, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, CAMH – Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Inspiring Healthy Futures, Future Ready
Minds, Child & Youth Advocacy Centres of Canada, Treehouse Child and Youth Advocacy Centre, Amanda Todd Legacy Society, Parachute, End Violence Everywhere (EVE) Initiative, The Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University, Unplugged Canada, Phone-Free Schools Movement, private sector partners including TELUS, and many others.
Together, we are calling on federal leaders to demonstrate clear political will and take decisive action to prevent further harm to children caused by cyberbullying, sexual exploitation, hate, and other forms of online violence. Children have waited long enough — and the responsibility to protect them cannot be deferred any further.
By signing this form, you will be publicly listed as a supporter of the Joint Call to Action urging the Government of Canada to reintroduce the Online Harms Act before December 31, 2025, ensuring the protection of Canada’s children online. Further, we are urging them to rename it the Online Safety Act, to underscore the emphasis on the end goal.
The Countdown for Kids campaign is being launched on National Child Day (November 20, 2025) with support from a powerful group of organizations including: Children First Canada, the Canadian Medical Association, SickKids, CHEO, IWK Health Centre, McMaster Children’s Hospital, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, CAMH – Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Inspiring Healthy Futures, Future Ready Minds, Child & Youth Advocacy Centres of Canada, Treehouse Child and Youth Advocacy Centre, Amanda Todd Legacy Society, Parachute, End Violence Everywhere (EVE) Initiative, The Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University, Unplugged Canada, Phone-Free Schools Movement, private sector partners, including TELUS, and many others.
Together, we are calling on the federal government to act immediately to prevent further harm to children caused by cyberbullying, exploitation, hate, and other forms of online violence.
Spread the Word!
Share the campaign with your network using these graphics and a post like this one:
Today is National Child Day — and the crisis facing children online can no longer be ignored.
Every single day, kids in Canada are being bullied, extorted, exploited, manipulated, and harmed in digital spaces. Some families have already suffered unimaginable loss.
That’s why I’m joining the #CountdownForKids — a 40-day push for the Government of Canada to reintroduce the Online Safety Act before December 31.
We will not start another year sacrificing one more child to online harms.
Go to www.countdownforkids.ca to join the movement.
#CountdownForKids #NationalChildDay
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