National has introduced a bill to ban under-16s from social media platforms, with both coalition partners set to vote against it under the agree-to-disagree clause.
The Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill requires platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook to check every user is aged above 16, with fines of up to 10% of global revenue. Messaging and calling apps WhatsApp and Discord are excluded, along with sites such as Roblox, Spotify, LinkedIn and ChatGPT.
Under the Bill, social media platforms must use verification methods such as facial age estimation, digital ID services or formal ID. Self-declared dates of birth are not enough on their own. The Bill does not address how platforms determine a user is under 16 without first establishing the age of every user.
Department of Internal Affairs officials confirmed in February that digital IDs could be used for online age verification, including on social media platforms, though National insisted the IDs would not be mandatory.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said the bill “doesn’t just introduce a minimum age requirement”, it “creates an enduring framework that can evolve alongside technology”. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon claimed evidence from Australia showed age limits were “already changing behaviour”.
However, three months into Australia’s ban, its eSafety regulator found that 81% of under-16s were still using social media, a decrease of only 5% from the 86% before the ban.
Citing Australia’s “colossal failure, “NZ First warned the ban could not be enforced without banning VPNs or using a digital ID that everyone would need to gain access to the platforms, and that enforcement would lead to “some sort of soviet era outcome” guaranteed to strip New Zealanders’ freedoms and privacy. Peters said on X: “We will never support the introduction of digital ID”.
ACT leader David Seymour said National had “hitched their wagon to a terrible solution,” warning “the ban they propose won’t work, and the side effects will leave us worse off.”
The bill will need Labour’s support to pass. Parliament rises for November’s election in four weeks, making passage before then unlikely.
Read more at NZ Herald, 1 News and see Winston Peters on X, Christopher Luxon on X, Joshua Riley on X, Holyhekatuiteka on X, Redbaiter on X and RCR’s interview with David Seymour on X.
Listen or watch more on RCR: RCR has warned for four years that age verification creates the infrastructure for universal digital ID and erodes anonymous internet use. Explore our extensive content on this topic on our Digital ID topic page on the RCR app including recent interviews with Joshua Riley and Judge David Harvey and the Free Speech Union and keep an eye out for an update to our Say No To Digital ID campaign page.
This story has been republished with permission from RCR Bites. For news like this direct and free to your Inbox every day, go to biteme.news to sign up for RCR Bites.
Imaga credit: Rodion Kutsaiev
Wow that took a lot of working out, did they adopt the globalist blueprint by any chance, Luxon is a tool just like his opponent Dimkins.
DOA
In lockstep like the Convid 19 hoax.. Shows the Pagan Pollies are owned by the small hat, Ba,al Hats, nothing good is to come from this. They give us warm and fuzzy meanings for their Digital enslavement, ie Inversion it is… They have had 30x years of the Internet, why bring such laws in now. We know,, for their Greater Isis Ra El Project, November 2026 vote small or not at all to rid the Country of the remnants of the Satanite Army or contiuneu to be Enslaved. Jesus is king, Not Lucifer the Imposter….. PS Alea iacta est” eNd the Satanite Armies Worldwide…..
Looks like this is a half hatched idea and hasn’t been thought through
And invariably will end up needing the usual prescription of a band aid applied to a hemorrhage
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it
That the Bill does not address how platforms determine a user is under 16 without first establishing the age of every user is a red flag for a start and leaves everything wide open to manipulation and abuse
In election year surely National could come up with something more important and useful to the benefit of the country than this which shows You they are out of ideas and running on empty
Just another reason that luxton is out of touch
NZ Social Media Ban: Erica Stanford On Protecting Kids From Big Tech Harms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HFYdOX-SEY