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New Zealand is preparing a bill to keep children under 16 off social media. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on August 24 that the country plans to introduce a bill to Parliament banning children under 16 from using social media. If any platform fails to meet the age-verification criteria, the country will claim up to 10% of that platform's global revenue.
The government says young users are facing harmful content, addictive features, and online pressure. Thus, the country wants the platforms to take responsible age-verification measures to prevent these incidents.
Luxon stated, “We simply cannot accept the harm being done to a generation of New Zealand children,” adding, “Social media is exposing them to harmful content, addictive technology and pressures they are not equipped to deal with, and it's affecting their family life, mental health, sleep and education.”
The key part of the plan is who carries the burden. Children and parents would not face fines. Social media companies would have to take reasonable steps to check users’ ages. Platforms could use account details, facial age checks and digital IDs.
The proposal puts companies such as Instagram, TikTok and Facebook in a difficult spot. They would need to find under-16 users and stop them from accessing their services. This could mean bigger checks at sign-up. It could also mean more work to identify younger users who already have accounts. The government believes platforms should handle this rather than leaving the task to families.
The plan also raises a privacy question. Age checks using facial technology or digital IDs could require users to share sensitive information. This has sparked concern about how such data would be collected and stored. The debate is now bigger than simply keeping children off social media. New Zealand must also decide how far platforms should go when checking who their users are.
