New Zealand proposes under-16 social media ban with fines up to 10% of tech revenue

The Online Safety Bill

The government of New Zealand presented the Online Safety Bill on 24 August 2026, proposing a ban on social media accounts for minors under 16 years of age. The legislation covers leading digital networks including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, and X, following more than a year of government consideration. The legislative framework establishes clear boundaries between social networking apps and functional digital utilities. Services intended to be exempt from the ban include direct messaging tools like WhatsApp, online gaming ecosystems such as Roblox, and productivity-oriented artificial intelligence applications including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Verification rules and global revenue penalties

Under the proposed law, technology companies carry the sole legal obligation to verify user ages and restrict ineligible accounts. Platforms must implement reasonable verification mechanisms, such as facial age estimation, digital identity systems, official government documents, and analysis of existing account data. Companies will also be mandated to conduct youth risk assessments and formally disclose how they mitigate potential harms. Non-compliant tech companies face fines of up to 10% of their global annual revenue. A specialized regulatory body inside the Ministry of the Interior will oversee compliance, investigate platforms, and enforce the rules. Education Minister Erica Stanford stressed that the bill places no legal liabilities on minors or their guardians.

No penalties are planned for children, their parents or guardians.

Coalition opposition and domestic usage

The legislative push relies on official usage statistics showing that one in three New Zealand adolescents aged 13 to 17 spends at least five hours daily on social media. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon argued that uninhibited access exposes young users to predatory engagement algorithms and damaging material, creating severe disruptions to sleep, family relationships, mental health, and academic performance.

We have protections to keep children safe in the real world and we need them in the virtual world too.

Despite the executive announcement, the bill faces immediate resistance inside Wellington's governing coalition. The libertarian ACT party and the populist New Zealand First party, both key governing partners of Luxon's National Party, declared their opposition and questioned the policy's real-world efficacy. With the opposition Labour Party maintaining silence, the proposal lacks the confirmed votes required for parliamentary passage.

Global wave of age restrictions

New Zealand's proposal aligns with a series of digital youth restrictions introduced across international jurisdictions. Australia enacted an under-16 social media ban on 10 December 2025, carrying platform fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($34.9 million), though a June 2026 study by Australian researchers found little evidence of reduced adolescent screen time.

In Europe, France's parliament approved an under-15 ban in July, but the country's top court blocked the statute on 14 August 2026 on freedom of expression grounds. Britain plans an under-16 ban taking effect in spring 2027 alongside mandatory device-level nude image blocking, Denmark announced an under-15 restriction permitting parental exceptions to age 13, and Germany requires parental consent for users between 13 and 16. China continues to mandate device-level screen limits through its minor mode, while Greece and India have pursued age limits and anti-addiction rules.