WELLINGTON | New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has unveiled legislation that would prohibit children under 16 from using social media, placing the country among a growing group of governments seeking to restrict young people’s access to online platforms amid concerns about harmful content, excessive use and its effects on mental health, sleep, education and family life.
The proposed Online Safety Bill, announced Monday, would require social media companies to take reasonable steps to prevent people under 16 from holding accounts on covered platforms. The government said the measure would place greater responsibility on technology companies to protect children online rather than leaving the issue solely to parents.
Luxon said one in three New Zealanders aged 13 to 17 now spends at least five hours a day on social media. He argued that children are being exposed to harmful content, addictive technologies and pressures they are not equipped to manage.
“We simply cannot accept the harm being done to a generation of New Zealand children,” Luxon said in announcing the proposal.
The legislation would cover major social media services including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook. Platforms would be expected to establish mechanisms for determining whether users are at least 16, potentially using information already associated with accounts, facial age estimation, digital identity services or formal identification. Companies that fail to meet their obligations could face penalties of up to 10 percent of their global revenue. Children and parents would not be subject to penalties under the proposal.
The proposal, however, faces a major political obstacle. Luxon’s National Party leads a coalition government with ACT New Zealand and New Zealand First, and both coalition partners have indicated they will oppose the measure. Opposition Labour has not committed to supporting it.
Luxon has acknowledged that the bill will not have enough time to pass through Parliament before the legislature is dissolved on October 1 ahead of the November general election. New Zealand bills normally go through three stages of parliamentary voting and scrutiny before becoming law.
New Zealand’s move follows a growing international push to regulate children’s access to social media. Australia became the first country to introduce a nationwide minimum age of 16 for social media in December 2025. Its policy has since become a reference point for governments in Europe and elsewhere considering similar restrictions. Reuters reported that countries including Canada, Brazil and Indonesia have also moved toward age-based restrictions, while several European governments are developing their own measures.
The Australian experience has also intensified debate over whether outright age restrictions can be effectively enforced. Critics have raised concerns about children circumventing restrictions, the collection of personal information for age verification and the possibility that young people could lose access to online communities and information that are important to their social lives and education.
The New Zealand proposal comes after a lengthy domestic debate. In 2025, opposition MP Catherine Wedd introduced the Social Media (Age-Restricted Users) Bill, which sought to require platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent under-16s from accessing designated social media services. The bill was designed around platform responsibility and included provisions for penalties and a later review of the law.
Parliament’s Education and Workforce Committee subsequently conducted an inquiry into the harms young New Zealanders encounter online. Its final report, released in March 2026, said members agreed that serious online harms affecting young people needed to be addressed, although the committee did not reach consensus on every issue. The inquiry helped build the policy background for the government’s decision to pursue an age restriction.
The proposed legislation also reflects a broader shift in the way governments view children’s online safety. Social media services have generally relied on minimum age requirements set by their own terms of service, often at 13, but widespread underage use has made those rules difficult to enforce. Governments are increasingly seeking to make platforms legally responsible for preventing children from accessing services considered unsuitable for them.
For Luxon’s government, the proposed ban is part of a wider effort to impose stronger boundaries around children’s digital lives. New Zealand introduced restrictions on students’ cellphone use during school hours in 2024, reflecting concerns about distraction and the impact of digital devices on learning. The new proposal would extend that approach beyond schools and into children’s broader online activity.
The debate is likely to continue through the election campaign, with questions over privacy, enforcement, parental responsibility, children’s rights and the design of social media platforms at the center of the controversy.
For now, New Zealand’s proposed under-16 social media ban remains legislation in the making rather than a law in force. Its future will depend heavily on the outcome of the November election and whether Luxon’s National Party can secure enough parliamentary support to revive and pass the measure.
Paraluman P. Funtanilla
Paraluman P. Funtanilla is Tutubi News Magazine's Marketing Specialist and is a Contributing Editor. She finished her degree in Communication Arts in De La Salle Lipa. She has worked as a Digital Marketer for start-up businesses and small business spaces for the past two years. She has earned certificates from Coursera on Brand Management: Aligning Business Brand and Behavior and Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content. She also worked with Asia Express Romania TV Show.
- Paraluman P. Funtanilla
- Paraluman P. Funtanilla
- Paraluman P. Funtanilla
- Paraluman P. Funtanilla
