Christopher Luxon, the prime minister of New Zealand, announced on Monday that his party will present a bill in Parliament that aims to prohibit children under the age of sixteen from using social media. He proposed sanctions of up to 10% of a platform’s worldwide income for noncompliance.
The measure would mandate that social media companies employ face recognition software, digital identity documents, and account information to verify users’ ages in a fair manner. In a statement, Luxon stated, “We just cannot accept the harm being done to a generation of New Zealand children.”
“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 New Zealand First party, one of Luxon’s coalition partners, declared it would not support the bill, therefore it was unclear at first whether it would have enough support to pass through Parliament.
In a post on X, New Zealand First leader and foreign minister Winston Peters stated, “We have been concerned about the proposed legislation and the direction and slippery slope that legislation like this will inevitably take our country.”
Australia became the first nation in the world to outlaw social media for children under the age of sixteen in December, preventing them from using sites including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), TikTok, and Meta’s (META.O).
Peters argued that the law had been a “colossal failure” and that parents should be in charge of preventing their children from using social media. “I won’t pretend that it will be easy or flawless,” Luxon remarked during a function.
We won’t be able to remove every child from social media. It’s simply too crucial not to at least try, even though some people will always find a way around it.
