(Image Credit: John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights)

By Nathaniel Leigh

Community

Grande Prairie youth reveals online safety blueprint at Ottawa press conference

Feb 23, 2026 | 6:00 AM

A Grande Prairie native was part of a group of youths that presented draft changes to Canada’s online safety policies in Ottawa last week.

Blue Vetsch was part of a group brought together by the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights to speak at a press conference on Parliament Hill Wednesday, Feb 11, and present the Youth Digital Rights Blueprint.

Vetsch says it was important that youth voices be heard on the matter of online safety, as they are the ones most impacted.

 “Youth across Canada came together and focused really on trying to figure out what Canada needs or what a reform of Bill C-63 needs looks like,” Says Vetsch. “So that we could then implement our own voices and get that out into some kind of thoughtbook.”

The blueprint describes the online harms Canada’s youth face and potential solutions to ensure digital spaces are safe, fair, and accountable.

Vetsch says they wanted their blueprint to look at the internet as a whole, rather than specific sections.

“There’s A.I., with generative A.I. making people do things in which they would never do to begin with,” they say. “There’s your video game space, in which policies and guidelines are there to protect the developers of those games, but not the actual player base.”

They are encouraging other Canadian youths to get involved in issues that matter to them as well, as they have a bigger impact than they may realize.

“We are our future, we are going to be the ones in those positions,” they say. “I really want to nail home that even if things are not the best or if you are getting impacted and you feel like your voice doesn’t matter, it does.”

They say their presentation and subsequent youth summit had a strong positive response, and their next step is to reach out to Canadian MPs directly to find ways to incorporate some of the ideas put forward.