National proposes social media ban for under 16s
The Herald reports:
National MP Catherine Wedd is introducing a new member's bill aiming to ban children under 16 from accessing social media platforms in New Zealand.
Wedd, MP for Tukituki in Hawke's Bay, said the My Social Media Age-Appropriate Users Bill is about protecting the 'most vulnerable young teenagers and children from the online harms of social media'.
Wedd said social media was an 'extraordinary resource' but it came with risks.
'Right now, we aren't managing the risks for our young people well.'
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the move was intended to protect young people from bullying, inappropriate content and social media addiction.
This addresses a genuine and serious problem. Social media use by young people has had some terrible outcomes in terms of bullying and also peer pressure around body size and shape.
This chart, via Maddy, shows a massive correlation (and no doubt causation).
So yes absolutely, having kids not able to use social media until they are 16 would be a good thing.
The challenge though is unintended consequences and definition.
A ban may make it more attractive to young NZers. They may be able to get around it easily. Parental supervision and involvement is preferable to legislation – however they are not an either/or choice.
And how do you define it. Would text messaging be captured? Group chats? Youtube? Do you name specific platforms?
So definitely worth supporting at first reading, but select committee would have a lot of work to do to see if it can be made workable, and that the benefits will be greater than the costs and unintended consequences.
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RNZ News
4 days ago
- RNZ News
RNZ Reid Research poll: Majority of Kiwis support social media ban for kids
The new RNZ Reid Research poll found less than a third of New Zealanders were opposed to a social media ban for children. Photo: RNZ Political parties can not agree on a social media ban, but more than half of New Zealanders support it for children under 16, according to the latest RNZ Reid Research poll. It comes as the government looks into options to restrict social media for young people, after a National Party members bill was dismissed by the ACT party as unworkable. National MP Catherine Wedd, with the backing of leader Christopher Luxon, put forward a members' bill last month which would follow Australia's lead on cracking down on the social media giants. The proposed law would require age verification measures on social media platforms. The ACT party dismissed the proposal , calling it hastily-drafted, simplistic and unworkable, meaning Luxon was prevented from pushing ahead with the policy as a government bill. 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Less than half of those who vote for Labour and the Greens support a ban, with 46.7 percent of Labour voters saying yes and 37.1 percent of its voters saying no. Green voters are split with 43.7 percent saying yes, and 43.1 percent saying no. Te Pāti Māori voters also had mixed feelings, with 42.2 percent saying yes and 49.8 percent saying no. Luxon said parents, teachers and kids were calling for a ban on social media for under-16s, and he was confident National had the public's support on the issue. "Yeah, absolutely, I think the feedback we've had from parents, and from you know, teachers, and even from kids themselves has actually been really positive. So I think it's important we do act, as I've said before, and we've got Erica Stanford leading that work for us." ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden argued any such ban should be enduring, and backed ACT's select committee investigation. "We actually need a lot of in-depth analysis as to what are all of the things that could happen before we even go to a full ban for under-16s, or even if it's feasible - but there needs to be a lot of in-depth analysis cross party, because we'd like something that's actually long-standing." Winston Peters said the idea needed serious study, with parents looking to lawmakers for help. "We don't think we have all the answers but it's worth a serious study because every objection you raise with it is fine until you've got parents who say 'look, we need help, we want the lawmakers to help us', and we think it's worth a serious investigation as to whether we can do that. "Whilst all the free marketeers and libertarians are making one argument out, [parents] still have the problem of trying to be a responsible parent where the utilities have been taken out of our hands and that's where we've got to step in." 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She said people should realise social media algorithms were controlled by billionaires fixated on creating outrage and discontent. Te Pāti Māori does not have a formal position on a ban, but co-leader Rawiri Waititi said tamariki and parents needed to be aware and educated about the risks of social media. "The well-being and safety of our tamariki is the most important thing for us." Members of the public in Christchurch also had mixed feelings. Nicholas Steed said a ban could have some benefits, but the problem would be implementation because of the difficulty to regulate platforms. "[It] could be very difficult to actually enforce that, and get people to follow the rules." Ashton Owen said he had two young boys and navigating this issue as a parent was really hard. "There's so many risks for young people getting on social media, with things like bullying." Owen said a ban would be difficult, but the benefits would outweigh how hard it would be. "The well-being of our young people is going to far outweigh the costs of trying to navigate and keep it in place and monitor it. Anything is better than nothing." Fiona Cleve said a ban did not make any sense and would be incredibly difficult to implement. "The way they're going about it is not productive, it's not going to solve the problem. "It's going to be a whole lot of red tape for no actual gain." Cleve pointed out that a lot of the social media companies were based overseas, and questioned how a verification measure to check someone's age would be enforced. George and Harlan are aged under 16 and told RNZ young people would be able to get around the ban, but agreed there should be regulation. "TikTok - yes get that banned, it's very damaging actually," said Harlan. This poll of 1008 people was conducted by Reid Research, using quota sampling and weighting to ensure a representative cross section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted through online interviews between 23-30 March 2025 and has a maximum margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent at a 95 percent confidence level. The report is available here .
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High-flyer mums flex their parenting muscle
A year ago, a group of rich-lister mums met with other high fliers from all walks of life and political hues with one thing in mind. Many were strangers to each other but the thing that united them was the push to bring in a law to get under-16-year-olds off social media. Such is the power of the group B416 and their cause that politicians from all corners came along to their launch last month, including Act's David Seymour, who doesn't support a social media ban. It took place just days after National's Catherine Wedd put forward her Social Media Age-Restricted Users Bill, a private member's bill. Since the launch, the move has faced criticism of moral panic, overreach and that a ban will risk the lives of vulnerable young people. But B416, which is co chaired by entrepreneur Cecilia Robinson and includes multi millionaire toy maker Anna Mowbray, says it is time to listen to parents who want to protect their children from social media harm. Founding member Malindi MacLean, who heads Outward Bound, says a lot of the criticism is from people who are not parents. 'It's really important to keep [in mind] the lived experience of parents. They are day in, day out experiencing the impact of social media addiction, or addictive behaviours of their children. 'A parent who has just been dealing with their teenager who is self harming or has sextortion or dealing with cyber bullying … it's not something that you can argue with.' Those arguing against a potential law that would force social media giants to use age verification measures on under 16s include retired district court judge, David Harvey; youth mental health activist Jazz Thornton; Victoria University media lecturer Alex Beattie and the online counselling service Youthline. Judge Harvey says the proposed bill is flawed and could get the Government in trouble with freedom-of-expression laws. There's also a risk it will exclude the likes of YouTube, he says. Thornton believes a blanket ban will cause harm to the most vulnerable children and even lead to deaths, while Beattie argues social media can be a good communication tool for children and parents, and is not an addiction like smoking. MacLean says she welcomes the debate but her group wants progress. Hence the extensive billboard and social media campaign. She says the time and resources put into the campaign would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. But the influential group has tapped into many communities for contributions and support. 'That just shows the appetite for change. The other thing is we've had a lot of support from organisations pro bono because most of them are human beings who also understand the issues.' Wedd's bill is in the biscuit tin in Parliament which means it may never see the light of day before the next election. That's not good enough for B416, which wants to see a policy by the end of the year, following Australia's world-first law and trials of the age-verification technology already underway. Tech expert Danu Abeysuriya of digital firm Rush tells The Detail how the technology could work and why it is important for New Zealand to follow Australia and others. 'We are a small nation and we don't represent a lot of revenue for large tech companies like Google, Facebook or X or Twitter. They focus on social media and to those companies our ad revenue is relatively small. 'Whatever we have to do we should still attempt to be practical otherwise we risk being alienated from those platforms. The balancing act is aligning what we do with what the rest of the world does.' Abeysuriya says there are a number of age-verification options but one of the simplest would be a digital token bought from the Warehouse, the local petrol station or even the child's school. Other technology could be used to put children off using social media, such as slowing down internet traffic. In this case the government would mandate Internet Service Providers such as One NZ to run traffic at half speed in specific time periods. 'It creates a bit of friction,' says Abeysuriya. 'If the TikTok video loads really slowly the kids might not watch the TikTok video, they might do something else like read a book.' He says the solutions are ideas and nothing will be perfect. 'The bravery to move is the thing that needs to happen here.' Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here. You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter.
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