Student Online Safety and AI Education Act

Summary#

Bill 137 creates an Online Safety Advisory Committee led by the Minister of Education to address children’s online safety and the use of artificial intelligence (AI). The committee must report within six months, and the Minister must update the Legislature and publish annual progress reports. The bill also requires the Minister to build the committee’s new K–12 curricula on online safety and AI literacy into Ontario’s curriculum.

Key changes:

• Sets up an Online Safety Advisory Committee within 60 days, including parents, youth, education workers, school board members, and social media experts.
• Tasks the committee with developing a plan to ban social media and AI chatbots in schools, with steps for school boards and exceptions for accessibility or educational needs.
• Requires the committee to create K–12 curricula on digital citizenship/online safety and on AI literacy (must cover AI misinformation, impacts on mental health and democracy, and environmental harms).
• Directs the committee to recommend ways to prevent harms from social media and AI, and to suggest measures to hold tech and social media companies accountable (including for issues like online gambling, pornography exposure, human trafficking and luring, mental health impacts, and misinformation).
• Asks the committee to recommend how to fund and train children’s mental health organizations to address technology-related addiction.
• Amends the Education Act so the Minister must incorporate the committee’s online safety and AI literacy curricula when developing provincial curriculum guidelines.
• Requires the Minister to inform the Assembly within six months of receiving the report about actions taken and next steps, and to publish annual implementation reports.

What it means for you#

• Students (K–12)

  • You would likely see new lessons across grades on online safety, digital citizenship, and AI literacy.
  • Access to social media and AI chatbots at school could be limited if the government adopts the committee’s ban plan. Exceptions could apply for accessibility or specific learning needs.
  • These changes would not be immediate; they depend on the committee’s plan and the government’s implementation.

• Parents and guardians

  • Parents will have representation on the committee.
  • You may see more transparency through annual public reports.
  • Your children’s curriculum would add content on AI and online safety.

• Teachers and education workers

  • You may be expected to teach new curriculum content on digital citizenship and AI literacy.
  • Training and new materials may be needed.
  • If a school ban on social media and AI chatbots is adopted, you may need to adjust classroom practices and help enforce school policies.

• School boards and administrators

  • You would likely need to update policies, networks, and school rules to carry out any adopted ban plan, including managing exceptions.
  • You may need to support teacher training and update curriculum delivery once the Minister integrates the new curricula.

• Children’s mental health organizations

  • The committee will recommend funding and training approaches to address technology-related addiction. The bill itself does not provide funding, but it could lead to future changes.

• Technology and social media companies

  • No direct rules are created by this bill. However, the committee will propose accountability measures that could inform future provincial actions.

• General public

  • Most changes are administrative in the short term. The most direct public impacts would come later, through curriculum updates and any government adoption of the school ban plan.

Expenses#

No publicly available information.

Possible cost areas (not estimated in the bill):

• Setting up and running the advisory committee; preparing reports.
• Developing, revising, and rolling out new curricula; teacher training and classroom materials.
• School board costs to implement any adopted ban plan (e.g., network filtering, device management, policy enforcement).
• Potential future funding changes for children’s mental health organizations, if government acts on recommendations.
• Ongoing administrative costs for the Minister’s annual public reports.

Proponents' View#

• The bill appears intended to protect children from online harms and reduce distractions at school by planning to ban social media and AI chatbots during school time, with room for necessary exceptions.
• Standardized K–12 instruction on digital citizenship and AI literacy could help students recognize misinformation and understand risks to mental health, democracy, and the environment.
• Involving parents, youth, educators, and experts may produce practical, classroom-ready guidance and policies.
• Annual public reporting could improve transparency and accountability for implementation.
• Exploring ways to hold companies accountable and to support mental health services could address harms beyond the classroom.

Opponents' View#

• The bill does not explain how a school ban would be enforced, especially for personal devices and cellular data. This may be hard for schools to manage and may raise privacy questions if monitoring is required.
• Requiring the Minister to incorporate curricula created by an advisory committee may reduce flexibility or bypass usual curriculum development, piloting, and review processes.
• The specified AI literacy topics focus on harms. Some may worry the approach could underplay safe and productive uses of AI.
• Costs and workload for schools, teachers, and boards are not identified, leaving uncertainty about funding and timelines.
• The bill asks for recommendations to “hold technology and social media companies accountable” but does not outline legal tools or limits. This may raise questions about what the province can do and what actions might follow.
• The six-month timeline to deliver recommendations, followed by six months for a government response, may be tight for developing high-quality K–12 curricula and detailed implementation plans.