New Zealand introduces bill to ban under-16s from social media

New Zealand's government has introduced legislation that would ban children under 16 from using social media, joining a growing number of countries seeking to limit young people's exposure to online platforms.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced the bill on Monday, saying the government could no longer accept the harm being done to a generation of New Zealand children. He cited 2025 research showing that one in three teenagers aged 13 to 17 spends at least five hours a day on social media.

"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," Luxon said.

The proposed law, formally titled the Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill, would require platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook to take "reasonable steps" to verify users are older than 16. Verification methods could include existing account information, facial age estimation, digital ID services and formal ID documents, according to material supplied by Luxon's party.

Companies that fail to comply could face fines of up to 10% of their global revenue. The bill would also require platforms to assess the risks they pose to young users and report on how those dangers are being reduced.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said the bill places legal obligations on platforms, not on families. "No penalties are proposed for children, their parents or caregivers," she said.

The legislation excludes messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, online gaming platforms like Roblox, and AI apps with productivity uses, including ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot.

Political hurdles

The bill's path to law is uncertain. Two of the three parties in Luxon's coalition government, the libertarian ACT party and New Zealand First, have said they will vote against it. New Zealand First leader Winston Peters described Australia's similar ban as a "colossal failure" and warned of a "slippery slope" that legislation like this would lead the country down.

"The fact is, no matter how laudable the intent is of introducing laws to address this serious issue, there is no method that would fulfil that intent without banning VPNs or the use of digital ID to enforce the law," Peters said, arguing that keeping children off social media should be the responsibility of parents.

ACT leader David Seymour said the party would not support a policy just because it sounds tough or polls well, questioning whether the "cure is worse than the disease."

Labour, the main opposition party, has not yet decided how it will vote. Leader Chris Hipkins said Labour was undecided, while Labour's digital economy spokesman Reuben Davidson expressed concern that the bill focuses on keeping young people off platforms rather than making platforms safer. Labour has submitted more than 70 questions to the government about the bill, according to the NZ Herald.

Luxon acknowledged the bill would not be perfect. "I won't pretend that it will be simple or that it will be perfect," he said. "We won't get every single child off social media. Some will always find ways around it, but frankly, it's just way too important not to at least try."

Time is also a constraint. Parliament dissolves on October 1 ahead of the November general election, and bills require three readings, usually over months, before becoming law. Luxon has said the bill is unlikely to progress before the election, but if re-elected he intends to pursue it.

Global context

New Zealand's move follows Australia, which in December 2025 became the first country to ban under-16s from social media. Australia's law imposes fines up to A$49.5 million (about $99 million) on platforms that fail to block minors. New Zealand's proposed penalty of up to 10% of global revenue is significantly steeper.

Since Australia's ban, more than two dozen countries have either enacted their own restrictions or are considering them, including Canada, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam and several European nations. France introduced an under-15 ban that takes effect on September 1, though lawmakers stripped out a key verification enforcement mechanism. The European Parliament voted in November for a digital minimum age of 16.

Luxon said acting in concert with other countries strengthens the impact. "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.

Doubts over effectiveness

Questions remain about whether such bans work. Australia's ban produced only a marginal reduction in underage users in its first three months, and a June peer-reviewed study found little evidence that it reduced teen social media use. In January, about a month after Australia's ban, platforms told the Australian regulator they had revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children.

Nicholas Carah, a professor at the University of Queensland, said Australia's ban does not work in practice, with more than eight in 10 Australian teenagers still using social media three months after the ban. Hannah Storey of Amnesty International said bans raise significant privacy concerns and do nothing to address the underlying addictive design of platforms.

Luxon also cited New Zealand's 2024 ban on mobile phones during the school day for all ages, which he said has been effective.