New Zealand’s government plans to introduce legislation banning under-16s from social media, joining a small but growing group of countries trying to keep young teenagers off platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
The Online Safety Bill, set to be introduced on Monday, would let regulators fine companies such as Meta up to 10 percent of their global revenue if they fail to keep younger users off their services. New Zealand has been studying a ban for over a year, after neighbouring Australia passed its world-first version of the law in December.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon put the case in blunt terms. “We simply cannot accept the harm being done to a generation of New Zealand children,” he said. He cited the scale of the problem as he saw it, noting that “one in three children aged between 13 and 17 are now spending at least five hours on social media a day,” and arguing that the platforms expose them to harmful content.
Enforcement is where these laws get complicated. Age-verification is hard to do without collecting more personal data on everyone, and determined teenagers are good at finding workarounds. Early research on Australia’s ban has suggested its real-world impact so far has been limited, which is the obvious cautionary note for anyone expecting a quick fix.
Still, the direction is clear. A year ago a national social-media age limit was a fringe idea; now one country has passed it and another is following, with the threat of revenue-scale fines aimed squarely at the largest platforms.
