What is an algorithm?

Please review each article prior to use: grade-level applicability and curricular alignment might not be obvious from the headline alone.

A man uses a laptop in Toronto in this Sunday, Oct. 9, 2023, photo illustration. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy

Foreign actors producing more false content about Alberta separatism: report

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Preview

Foreign actors producing more false content about Alberta separatism: report

Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Thursday, May. 7, 2026

EDMONTON - Foreign actors are increasingly generating articles, podcasts and social media posts riddled with disinformation about Alberta's separatist movement, says a new report.

The report from a team of researchers, published Wednesday by the Canadian monitoring platform DisinfoWatch, says the campaigns are coming out of Russia and the United States.

It says social media influencers with millions of followers are generating the disinformation in the United States.

"This matters because influencers increasingly command more attention than traditional institutions and can move fringe narratives into mainstream political debate," the report says.

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Thursday, May. 7, 2026

Delaying access to social media

Lianna McDonald 4 minute read Tuesday, May. 5, 2026

An 11-year-old boy is threatened with the distribution of nude images unless he pays an international extortionist who found him on TikTok. A 12-year-old girl is relentlessly pressured by someone she believed was a friend to expose herself on camera. A 14-year-old boy is unravelling — failing classes, withdrawing from life — because his friend is being exploited on Roblox and he feels powerless to help.

These are not outliers. In 2025 alone, Cybertip.ca processed more than 28,000 reports. These are just three.

Canada’s children are not stumbling into harm by accident. They are being systematically exposed to it — on platforms engineered to capture their attention, monetize their vulnerability and retain their engagement at all costs. The scale and severity of harm now demand more than incremental reform. They demand intervention.

For over 25 years, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection has documented a steep and accelerating rise in online harms against children. This trajectory is not coincidental. It reflects a digital environment that is fundamentally misaligned with the developmental realities of childhood.

Structured approach needed with tech

Jo Ann Unger and Michelle Warren 4 minute read Monday, May. 4, 2026

Families need our help and support. Technology has done many things to better our world; from life-saving medical advances to connecting people across the world to efficiencies in our everyday lives.

FILE - This combination of 2017-2022 photos shows the logos of Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat on mobile devices. A trade group representing TikTok, Snapchat, Meta and other major tech companies sued Ohio on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024 over a pending law that requires children to get parental consent to use social media apps. (AP Photo/File)

Empower youth by giving them tools to stay safe online

Jen Zoratti 5 minute read Preview

Empower youth by giving them tools to stay safe online

Jen Zoratti 5 minute read Saturday, May. 2, 2026

Do you support banning kids from social media? Do you also post photos of your kids on your Facebook or Instagram?

Whenever the topic of banning social media for kids comes up, as it did again this week when Premier Wab Kinew announced that Manitoba will ban youth from using social media and AI chatbots, we run into a wee bit of cognitive dissonance among the adults.

Many of today’s young people had social media presences long before they were old enough to consent to them — not as users, but as content posted by their parents. Instagram is nearly 16 years old; the iPhone nearly 20. A lot of kids have had digital footprints since the sonogram. Their whole lives are online.

So, as young people who are already on social media transition into social media users themselves, we should, as a society, empower them to make informed decisions about how, where and if they want to show up online, not ban them from platforms they use to connect with their peers, express their creativity and learn about the world. Platforms they’ve grown up around and, in many cases, on.

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Saturday, May. 2, 2026
A ChapGPT logo is seen on a smartphone in West Chester, Pa., Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Young Canadians want AI companies to make their chatbots less addictive: report

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview

Young Canadians want AI companies to make their chatbots less addictive: report

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Friday, May. 1, 2026

OTTAWA - A new report focusing on the perspectives of young people says the government should order AI companies to take steps to curb the addictive aspects of their AI chatbots.

It’s one of a series of recommendations made by youth between the ages of 17 and 23 who took part in roundtables across the country.

Participants presented the report — published by McGill University’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy and Simon Fraser University's Dialogue on Technology Project — and its recommendations on Parliament Hill on Thursday.

Maddie Case, a youth fellow with the McGill centre, introduced the 25 young people who developed the chatbot recommendations.

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Friday, May. 1, 2026
FILE - This combination of 2017-2022 photos shows the logos of Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat on mobile devices. Ohio's governor wants the state to require parental consent for kids under 16 to get new accounts on TikTok, Snapchat and other social media platforms. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine's two-year budget proposal, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023 would create a law that social media companies must obtain a parent's permission for children to sign up for social media and gaming apps. (AP Photo, File)

Advocates praise move to ban social media use among youths

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read Preview

Advocates praise move to ban social media use among youths

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read Sunday, Apr. 26, 2026

Child advocates are praising the Manitoba government for announcing its intention to ban the use of social media and artificial intelligence chatbots for youths.

Premier Wab Kinew told a crowd at a party event Saturday night the NDP government will move to restrict children from using social media accounts and artificial intelligence chatbots. The proposal is intended to protect kids from technology platforms that he says hurt their development.

Details on the plan are scant, like the age limit he is considering or how a ban would be enforced. He did not speak to reporters after his speech and was not available for comment Sunday.

Kinew’s director of communications, Amy Tuckett-McGimpsey, said the premier will likely speak more about the idea in the coming days.

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Sunday, Apr. 26, 2026
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS ‘We literally have 80 years of experience and data in our platform today that is always learning and always getting better,’ says Mark Lepp, owner of GrainFox.
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AI-driven app like a grain market ‘analyst in your pocket’

Aaron Epp 4 minute read Preview
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AI-driven app like a grain market ‘analyst in your pocket’

Aaron Epp 4 minute read Thursday, Apr. 16, 2026

Mark Lepp grew up on a 5,000-acre grain farm near Elm Creek, but he never took to farming the way his father and two younger brothers did.

“I probably frustrated everyone around me,” he said. “The real art of farming — I was not that artist.”

That hasn’t stopped the entrepreneur from making a name for himself in agriculture. In 2004, he co-founded FarmLink Marketing Solutions, which pioneered the business of providing personalized marketing recommendations for Western Canadian farmers.

“I always liked the economics part (of farming),” Lepp said. “I liked the business part.”

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Thursday, Apr. 16, 2026
Guests collect their smartphones at the end of a weekly phone-free gathering at the home of organizer Dan Fox in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
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A small but growing movement wants you to put down your phone. But first read this

Michael Weissenstein, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview
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A small but growing movement wants you to put down your phone. But first read this

Michael Weissenstein, The Associated Press 5 minute read Monday, May. 11, 2026

NEW YORK (AP) — More than a dozen millennials gathered in a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn and placed their phones in a metal colander before two hours of reading, drawing and conversation — anything but staring at screens.

A similar scene played out a few miles away, in an early 20th-century cardboard box factory turned high-end office space. Nearly 20 people in their 30s stared at their cellphones for a few minutes. Then they set them down and looked at their bared palms for a while. Then those of their neighbors.

The exercise was meant to drive home the importance of paying attention to real life, not the gleaming little screens that have taken over our world.

A ‘revolution’ against devices

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Monday, May. 11, 2026
Federal NDP Leader Avi Lewis pauses for a portrait during a stop in the riding of University-Rosedale, in Toronto, on Wednesday, April 8, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan
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NDP pushing for ban on AI surveillance pricing as Lewis makes Parliament Hill debut

David Baxter, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Preview
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NDP pushing for ban on AI surveillance pricing as Lewis makes Parliament Hill debut

David Baxter, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Tuesday, May. 5, 2026

OTTAWA - The NDP is expected to introduce a motion on Wednesday calling on the government to ban a practice known as surveillance pricing that New Democrats say is unfair to consumers.

The text of the motion describes the practice as companies using a customer's personal data, like search history or how long they stay on a web page, to increase prices both in store and online.

NDP Leader Avi Lewis said Monday examples of this can include a parent with a sick baby being charged a higher price for a thermometer or medicine based on internet search history.

"This means that two different people could pay two different prices for the exact same product in the same store or on the same website on the day. It's unfair, it's a ripoff, and it's downright creepy. And it's time to put a stop to it," Lewis said.

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Tuesday, May. 5, 2026
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The need for regulation in a digital age

Andrew Lodge 5 minute read Monday, Apr. 13, 2026

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta and co-founder of Facebook, has been under increased scrutiny in past months after being forced to testify in a Los Angeles courtroom over allegations that Meta-owned Instagram is designed to be addictive, especially when it comes to kids.