Parliamentary committee calls for under 16s social media ban

Thursday, 5 March 2026

Australia is the first country to ban social media for users under 16, effective Dec 10, 2025. Ten major platforms must block access or face fines up to $50m.

A parliamentary committee investigating online harm has recommended that the Government ban children from using social media.

The committee, made up from MPs from across Parliament, said New Zealand should adopt the regulations of the UK, European Union and Australia, to become a “fast follower” in the space of digital regulation.

Those jurisdictions have either already banned children from social media, or are moving to. By majority, the committee said New Zealand should do the same.

But the Green and ACT parties both opposed a complete “ban” of under 16-year-olds from accessing social media websites. They argued prohibition did not tend to work, and it could end up pushing children onto fringe websites.

Both parties also opposed a recommendation to explore if the Government could ban restrict the use of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks). VPNs are used globally to shield IP addresses, and can be used to get around Government firewalls.

ACT leader David Seymour said that recommendation showed the committee had “creeped” into the realm of censorship. The Greens said the suggestion was “technologically impossible”, and ignored legitimate uses for VPNs.

A parliamentary committee has recommended a ban on children using social media.

The committee acknowledged that a social media ban alone wouldn’t be enough to keep young people safe online. It also called for the Government to consider creating an online regulator, and it wanted to force tech companies to provide “algorithm transparency”.

The committee said there should be a complete ban on “nudify” apps, which can use AI to create harmful deepfake images and video.

Labour technology and innovation spokesperson Reuben Davidson said online risks would evolve, which was why New Zealand needed a regulator. The regulator, he said, would be able to hold tech companies to account “for the harm they cause”.

ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar sat on the committee investigating online harm.

“We also need clear rules to control deepfake technology and a ban on ‘nudify’ apps, which pose real risks to young people’s privacy and safety,” he said.

ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar said the committee had “jumped to conclusions”, and wasn’t given access the evidence it needed to make informed recommendations. She wrote to the committee, asking for officials to provide a risk assessment about banning under 16-year-olds and for advice about how the ban was working in Australia.

She said officials, and other MPs, didn’t want to provide that advice because the Government, separately, was developing policy on the issue.

Green MP Tamatha Paul says a social media ban is unlikely to work.

Parmar was also concerned about how Parliament would define a “nudify” app. She said Grok, which was on Twitter/X.com, could be caught in that definition.

“We don’t want to ban technology, but we want to actually regulate the behaviour,” she said.

Green MP Tamatha Paul said her party had listened to young people, who’d voiced concerns about a social media ban.

“Prohibiting things and restricting access to things doesn’t always mean that it stops the harm that we're trying to prevent,” she said.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon asked Education Minister Erica Stanford to lead work looking at banning kids from social media.

Unlike ACT, the Green Party supported creating an online regulator.

National deputy leader Nicola Willis said the committee’s recommendations would need to undergo “a full policy process” overseen by a minister, before anything was enacted.

“Preventing harm to children using social media and young people using social media is something that we're galvanized by, and we recognise that a simple ban is probably not sufficient. There need to be complementary measures with that,” Willis said.

Education Minister Erica Stanford was responsible for leading the Government’s work on online safety. She was not at Parliament, and not available for an interview on Thursday. In a statement, she said work was “progressing well” on policy to regulate social media use for children.

She said the committee had done “great work”, providing “really good suggestions”.

“We are carefully considering different elements so that we can develop effective, balanced policy that works for New Zealanders.

“This isn’t about keeping children off the internet – it's about making sure they’re safer when they are on it. We’re learning from what’s working overseas so we can get it right for New Zealand families,” she said.