Canada’s Trudeau says TikTok ban had ‘side benefit’ of getting his kids off platform

By Steve Scherer

OTTAWA, March 24 (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday that he was happy his recent ban on the use of Chinese-owned social media app TikTok from government-issued devices meant his children could no longer access the platform.

Speaking at a joint news conference with U.S. President Joe Biden in Ottawa, Trudeau said: “Our concerns around TikTok are around security and access to information that the Chinese government could have to government phones. It’s just a personal side benefit that my kids can’t use TikTok anymore.”

Trudeau, 51, has three children, two of whom are teenagers. His government announced its ban last month, saying the platform has an “unacceptable” risk to privacy and security.

“I am obviously concerned with their privacy and their security, which is why I’m glad that on their phones that happened to be issued by the government, they no longer access TikTok,” Trudeau said. “That was a big frustration for them. ‘Really this applies to us, dad?'”