New Zealand's National Party plans legislation to prevent children under 16 from using social media, with platforms facing fines of up to 10% of their global revenue for non-compliance.
Coalition partner New Zealand First has said it will not support the legislation, citing concerns over digital ID, VPN restrictions, ambiguity in the proposed law and parental rights.
The proposed New Zealand restrictions follow Australia's similar law, but its eSafety Commissioner said more than 80% of Australian under-16s continue to use social media despite the age restriction.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's party, the New Zealand National Party, will introduce legislation seeking to prevent children under 16 from using social media, with platforms facing fines of up to 10% of their global revenue if they fail to comply.
Luxon said in a post on X, “We’re taking action to protect young people online, backing parents and holding big tech accountable.” However, the New Zealand First party- a coalition partner- agrees with the intent of the law change, but said they will not be supporting the progression of legislation. The party questioned the ambiguity and lack of certainty in the proposed legislation.
New Zealand Proposes Under-16 Social Media Ban
Under the proposed legislation, social media companies would be expected to establish users’ ages through reasonable verification measures, such as information already associated with their accounts, facial-recognition technology and digital identity documents.
The New Zealand First party said they communicated their concerns to Luxon’s party over the past few months. The party said, “We have been concerned at the ambiguity and lack of certainty in the proposed legislation around banning VPNs and the potential movement towards the use of digital ID to enforce the law. New Zealand First does not support either of these measures.”
“We have also questioned the progression of this legislation given the failure of Australia to address under-16s using social media with the use of a similar law,” it added.
Bill Faces Political Hurdles
Kym McDonald-King, who represents the New Zealand First party in Dunedin, said that the Government is not moving to ban U16s from social media. The National Party is. She said that there is no method that would fulfil that intent without banning VPNs or the use of digital ID to enforce the law. She further voiced her fear that the ban would “lead to a soviet era outcome that would be guaranteed to take New Zealanders’ freedoms and privacy away.”
King questioned if it was right for a government to take over the responsibility of parents, and the expectations that parents have the rights and responsibilities to make decisions for their own children.
She said that the government can play a part in making society safer. “But it should never be by totalitarian overreach or at the expense of those parental rights, nor at the expense of the freedoms and privacy of the rest of the country,” she said.
Australia had introduced a similar law earlier. But, more than 80% of Australian children under 16 continue to use social media despite the country's landmark age restriction, according to a compliance update by the eSafety Commissioner, which said platforms have yet to fully meet their obligations under the law.
"If a platform has not taken the reasonable steps they need to comply, we will take action. That's our role, and we're committed to it," eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a video statement accompanying the report.
