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By Jennifer Blatherwick, MLA for Coquitlam-Maillardville

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Protecting young people across B.C.

Oct 15, 2025 | 10:30 AM

YOUTH IN B.C. are facing a challenging world and it’s our government’s goal to do everything we can to protect them against online exploitation and the health risks from vaping and tobacco. To keep that commitment, our BC NDP government introduced two bills that will help protect people — especially young British Columbians.

In 2023, we passed the Intimate Images Protection Act to give survivors of intimate image abuse stronger, faster and more affordable ways to reclaim control of their lives. This kind of abuse disproportionately targets women and girls, 2SLGBTQIA+ youth — and increasingly boys, who are now being targeted in sextortion scams, often extorted for money and driven to silence. As of September 2025, the Intimate Images Protection Service has resolved more than 300 cases of stolen, deep-faked or abusive images, getting closure and resolution for victims.

This week, we introduced upgrades to the Intimate Images Protection Act that will not only expand support for victims of sexual violence but also increase accountability for perpetrators. Sharing or making threats to distribute a person’s intimate images or videos without consent can have enormous mental and emotional impacts on victims, especially children and youth.

Many of you will remember in 2012, a B.C. teenager named Amanda Todd tragically took her life after being sexually harassed online. Amanda’s mother, Carol Todd, has been a fierce advocate for protecting youth ever since, calling for legal changes, including that the word ‘sextortion’ be included in the Criminal Code. In 2023, Carol was there when the Intimate Images Protection Act was announced. We need to protect youth like Amanda, keep holding perpetrators responsible and prevent exploitation like this in the future.

On Monday, we brought forth legislation to substantially increase the penalties perpetrators can receive from $5,000 to $75,000. This punishes perpetrators and discourages future offences. We also improved the process, so victims can bring forward cases and make choices that help protect their privacy.

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Together, these changes demonstrate that British Columbia will defend our people online, especially vulnerable children and youth.

Another troubling trend among youth is the steady increase in vaping. I know as a parent that vapes and vaping are becoming more normalized among youth and at school — and it greatly concerns me and the parents I hear from in my constituency.

There is widespread knowledge that vaping has harmful health impacts and the evidence is growing. And yet, vape and e-cigarette manufacturers and wholesalers have repeatedly used deceptive marketing practices to make more money at the expense of people’s health.

We want to make sure that British Columbians, including youth, are not being deceived into thinking that vapes are a ‘healthy’ option with no impacts on their future. Any companies who use deliberately misleading ads to make vaping seem harmless and fun need to be held accountable.

On Wednesday, we introduced the Vaping Product Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Bill, so that our government can initiate or join legal proceedings against vape and e-cigarette manufacturers and wholesalers to help recover public health costs.

This first-of-its-kind legislation on vaping follows in the footsteps of previous legislation around tobacco and opioids. This law will help hold those accountable who care about profit over people, by putting the cost of addressing health harms onto them — not British Columbians.

We hope that these manufacturers will see our success in holding tobacco and opioid manufacturers accountable. In May, British Columbia’s share of a landmark settlement for health damages from the big tobacco firms will be about $3.7 billion over 18 years, the largest in Canadian history. Unscrupulous firms who take advantage of children can take notice of BC’s readiness to pursue legal action and our success in achieving harsh monetary damages. Now is the time to change your business practices to properly highlight the risk to British Columbians, including to youth.

Together, it’s our responsibility to look out for everyone in our communities and to shield young people, the future of our province. These laws will help keep them safe.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.