Bill 137 explained in plain English
Keeping Our Kids Safe Online Act, 2026
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 44th Parliament, 1st Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
Bill 137 creates an Online Safety Advisory Committee to develop recommendations and curriculum on online safety and artificial intelligence for Ontario schools.
Bill 137, the Keeping Our Kids Safe Online Act, 2026, would create a new Online Safety Advisory Committee in Ontario. Within 60 days of the bill receiving Royal Assent, the Minister of Education would appoint members to this committee from five groups: parents, youths, education workers, school board members, and social media experts. The committee would be asked to: - Look at how other places handle online safety and see what works - Create a plan for schools to ban social media and artificial intelligence chatbots, including when exceptions might be needed for accessibility or learning - Develop a curriculum for kindergarten to grade 12 about digital citizenship and online safety - Develop a curriculum for kindergarten to grade 12 about artificial intelligence literacy, with instruction on fake information, mental health effects, and environmental impacts - Make recommendations on how to protect children and youth from harms related to social media and artificial intelligence, including harms from online gambling, pornography, human trafficking, luring, mental health effects, and misinformation - Recommend how to ensure mental health organizations get enough funding and training to handle technology-related addiction The committee would submit its recommendations to the Minister within six months. The Minister would then report to the Ontario Legislature within six months of receiving the recommendations, explaining what actions the government will take. The Minister would also publish annual reports on progress. The bill also amends the Education Act to require the Minister to use the curriculum materials developed by this committee when creating official curriculum guidelines for Ontario schools. The bill would come into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Creates an Online Safety Advisory Committee that the Minister of Education must establish within 60 days of the bill coming into force
- Requires the committee to be composed of members from five groups: parents, youths, education workers, school board members, and social media experts
- Tasks the committee with exploring online safety approaches in other jurisdictions
- Tasks the committee with developing a plan for schools to ban social media and artificial intelligence chatbots, including identifying exceptions for accessibility or educational needs
- Tasks the committee with developing a kindergarten to grade 12 curriculum on digital citizenship and online safety
- Tasks the committee with developing a kindergarten to grade 12 curriculum on artificial intelligence literacy, including instruction on misinformation, mental health impacts, and environmental harms
- Tasks the committee with making recommendations on preventing harms from social media and artificial intelligence, including harms related to online gambling, pornography, human trafficking, luring, mental health, and misinformation
- Tasks the committee with recommending how to ensure mental health organizations have sufficient funding and training for technology-related addiction
- Requires the committee to submit its recommendations to the Minister within six months of establishment
- Requires the Minister to report to the Ontario Legislature within six months of receiving the committee's recommendations, describing actions the government will take
- Requires the Minister to publish annual reports on progress implementing the committee's recommendations
- Amends the Education Act to require the Minister to incorporate the committee's digital citizenship, online safety, and artificial intelligence literacy curricula into official curriculum guidelines
- The Minister of Education, who must establish and manage the advisory committee, incorporate its curricula, report to the Legislature, and publish annual reports
- Students and children in Ontario schools, who may be affected by new curriculum on digital citizenship, online safety, and artificial intelligence literacy, and by potential policies on social media and chatbot use in schools
- Parents, as they are invited to serve on the advisory committee
- Youths, as they are invited to serve on the advisory committee and as they are the subject of online safety concerns
- Education workers and school board members, as they are invited to serve on the advisory committee and may implement school policies and curriculum
- Social media experts, as they are invited to serve on the advisory committee
- Mental health organizations serving children, as the committee is tasked with recommending how to ensure they have sufficient funding and training
- Technology and social media companies, as the committee may recommend measures to hold them accountable
- The Minister of Education must establish an Online Safety Advisory Committee within 60 days of the Act coming into force
- The Minister must ensure the advisory committee includes members from parents, youths, education workers, school board members, and social media experts
- The advisory committee must perform specific functions including exploring other jurisdictions' approaches, developing plans to ban social media and chatbots in schools, developing curricula on digital citizenship and artificial intelligence literacy, and making recommendations on protecting children from online harms
- The advisory committee must submit recommendations to the Minister within six months of being established
- The Minister must report to the Ontario Legislature within six months of receiving the committee's recommendations
- The Minister must incorporate the most recent versions of the committee's digital citizenship and artificial intelligence literacy curricula when developing curriculum guidelines under the Education Act
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent
- The Minister must establish the Online Safety Advisory Committee no more than 60 days after the Act comes into force
- The Online Safety Advisory Committee must submit its report of recommendations to the Minister on or before six months after the committee is established
- The Minister must inform the Assembly of actions and next steps on or before six months after receiving the committee's recommendations
- The Minister must publish annual reports on progress implementing the recommendations
- The bill does not specify funding amounts for the advisory committee or for implementing its recommendations
- The bill does not specify costs for developing or implementing the new curricula
- The committee is tasked with recommending measures to ensure mental health organizations receive sufficient funding and training, but no funding is allocated by this bill
- The bill does not specify penalties or enforcement mechanisms for non-compliance with the requirements to establish the committee, develop curricula, or report progress
- The bill does not specify how schools will be required to implement the committee's recommendations regarding social media and chatbot bans
- The bill does not specify how committee members will be selected from the required groups or the total size of the committee
- The bill does not detail what 'effective' approaches to online safety means when the committee assesses other jurisdictions
- The bill does not specify how schools will be required to implement the ban on social media and artificial intelligence chatbots once a plan is developed
- The bill does not specify whether the curriculum recommendations will be mandatory or advisory for school boards and schools
- The bill does not specify what happens if the Minister disagrees with the committee's recommendations or does not implement them
- The bill does not detail the specific harms the committee should prioritize when making recommendations on protection measures
- The bill does not specify how much funding mental health organizations should receive or what constitutes 'sufficient' funding and training
- The bill does not specify enforcement mechanisms if the Minister fails to meet the reporting deadlines or does not incorporate the curricula as required
- The bill does not specify the structure, staffing, or budget of the advisory committee
Section 8 of the Education Act is amended to add new curriculum requirements. The Minister must incorporate the digital citizenship and online safety curriculum and the artificial intelligence literacy curriculum developed by the Online Safety Advisory Committee when developing curriculum guidelines under the Education Act.
Source: Section 4 of Bill 137
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
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Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
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