New Zealand plans to ban under-16s from social media, joining a throng of countries worldwide seeking to limit online harm to children.
The government will introduce the Online Safety Bill on Monday that will require high-risk social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook to take reasonable steps to check users are over the age of 16, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told reporters. The law is unlikely to progress before a Nov. 7 election.
Penalties for companies that fail to meet their obligations will be significant — potentially as much as 10% of a platform’s global revenue, Luxon said.New Zealand has become the latest country to emulate Australia, which barred under-16s from using social media in late 2025. Since then more than two dozen countries have either enacted their own bans or are weighing similar restrictions. They include a number of European states as well as developing nations such as Indonesia, Vietnam and Brazil.
Still, Australia’s world-first legislation has its limits — it led to only a marginal reduction in underage users in its first three months, underscoring the lack of enforcement by major platforms operated by companies including Meta Platforms Inc. and Snap Inc. And many teenagers appear to be finding ways around it.“We’re part of a global network of countries with similar legislative frameworks in place and that’s what we’re working toward,” Luxon said. “There’s real power in the fact that we are acting in concert with many other countries around the world.”Luxon said big tech firms may be able to ignore the requests of individual small nations, but many nations working in “lock step” can have more sway.“If I’m a CEO of one of those big tech firms and I have 42 countries that have a similar framework and a similar approach, I’m paying attention to that,” he said.Education Minister Erica Stanford, who is shepherding the bill into parliament, said Australia, the UK and nations across Europe are looking at working together to combat the harm from social media platforms. A number of US states have begun lawsuits against companies including Meta claiming that by engineering their platforms to be hard to resist, the companies are causing serious harm to young users.“We are part of a global movement to protect our kids,” she said.Luxon said one in three children between the ages of 13 and 17 spends at least five hours on social media a day, exposing themselves to harmful content, addictive technology and pressures they are not equipped to deal with. It’s affecting their family life, mental health, sleep and education,” he said.“We can no longer sit back and just wait for the big tech companies to fix this on their own. They’ve had years to act and they haven’t,” said Luxon.Coalition Partners
