New Zealand's Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, announced that he will present a bill to ban the use of social media to under 16 years of age, following similar policies that have already been implemented in Australia.
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24/08/2026
by
Lusa
AND, Luxon indicated that New Zealand cannot accept the damage that social media are doing to the youngest population in the country.
According to the New Zealand Prime Minister, one in three young people between the ages of 13 and 16 in New Zealand use the social networks at least five hours a day.
The Prime Minister argued that digital platforms expose minors to “harmful contents, addictive technology and pressures for which they are not prepared”, with impacts on family life, mental health, sleep and education.
The bill plans to force New Zealand’s “high-risk” platforms – including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook – to take measures to check that users are at least 16 years of age.
Systems may use information already available in the accounts: age estimation by facial recognition, digital identity services and official documents.
Digital platforms shall periodically assess the risks they pose to minors and report on measures to mitigate the harmful effects of social networks.
The standard provides for sanctions up to 10% of a platform's overall revenue and the creation of an internet safety regulator linked to the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, charged with overseeing compliance with the rules, investigating companies and ensuring law enforcement.
Message services such as WhatsApp and Discord, as well as video games like Roblox, are excluded.
Artificial Intelligence (IA) systems “oriented to productivity” are also not affected by the measure.
“The project imposes legal obligations on platforms. Sanctions are not proposed for children, parents or tutors”, explained Wellington Minister of Education of the Conservative Executive, Erica Stanford, who intends to create a regulatory framework capable of adapting to the evolution of technology.
Despite the proposal, parliamentary approval is not guaranteed, since the partner coalition parties ACT and New Zealand First have already announced that they will not support the initiative as well as Labour parties in the opposition.
In December 2025, Australia became one of the first countries to prohibit the use of social media to children under the age of 16.
However, experts questioned the effectiveness of the measure and, according to a survey published in June, 78% of minors continued to access platforms in the country despite the ban.
Luxon recognized that the measure will not be perfect, but maintained that data in Australia showed changes in behavior, and the objective, he stressed, is to guard the behaviors of “future generations”.