Neil Sands
Lawmakers supporting a social media ban for under-16s have urged Parliament to tackle “the digital robber barons on the 21st century”, while those opposing the move warn prohibition will erode privacy and drive children to “deeper and darker corners of the internet”.
During a special parliamentary debate this week examining a select committee report into the online harm young people are experiencing, MPs from all parties outlined their positions on how to protect children who are growing up in an increasingly toxic digital environment.
The impassioned discussion confirmed the adage that politics makes strange bedfellows, with National and Labour both supporting a ban while ACT and the Greens were united in rejecting the proposal.
Te Pati Māori’s Hana-Rawhiti Mapi-Clarke also enthusiastically backed a member’s bill outlawing deepfakes which was drafted by Laura McClure, mental health spokeswoman for ACT – the party behind the Treaty Principles Bill which Mapi-Clarke ripped up during its first reading in 2024, a moment that went viral around the world.
National MP Carl Bates, who was acting chair of the Education & Workforce Select Committee when it prepared the report, said young people online risked exposure to a range of online harm, including inappropriate content, bullying, scams, predatory advertising and exploitative interactions such as grooming.
“These harms do not exist in isolation,” he said. “They are interconnected, they compound over time and they are often shaped by the design of the platforms themselves, including the incentives created through algorithmic recommendation systems.”
Tech’s big tobacco tipping point?
In addition to a social media ban, the report proposed:
- a national online safety regulator;
- tighter controls on digital design elements such as algorithmic recommendations and infinite scrolling;
- curbing harmful online advertising;
- educating parents and children about ways to reduce online risks; and
- forcing tech companies to be more transparent.
There was broad consensus among speakers about these issues, with the ban proving the main point of contention.
Labour’s Phil Twyford said that online platforms provide private corporations with a level of access to the minds of children that is historically unprecedented, arguing they must be reined in because they are delivering harmful content through media that are designed to be addictive.
“Previous generations found the courage to regulate monopolies of all kinds: railroads, oil companies, banks, tobacco companies and broadcasters,” he said. “Our generation must now find the courage to place democratic limits on the digital robber barons of the 21st century.”
The Greens agreed that tech giants need to be held accountable and users, both children and adults, should be given more help navigating the complex digital world, but warned a social media ban would prove counter-productive.
Greens co-leader Marama Davidson said a ban would unintentionally punish young people by locking them out of platforms where they can foster connection and belonging, while her colleague Chlöe Swarbrick said the measure was “focused on the wrong target” and any clampdown should be aimed at the tech giants.
“These private companies that pull those strings hold so much data on all of us that they are intentionally … able to manipulate our emotions to undermine our democracies,” she said.
“Ultimately, they also hold more money and more power than many governments across the world… On top of that, we’re worried about how [a ban] could drive young people into deeper and darker corners of the internet.”
‘Surveillance state’
ACT’s Parmjeet Parmar claimed National and Labour were determined to implement a ban from the inquiry’s outset, labelling it a “rubber-stamping exercise” that relied on emotion, not evidence, to draw conclusions.
She said there were practical issues associated with a ban that pose major risks to privacy, such as age verification and possibly curbing the use of VPNs to stop children bypassing restrictions.
“I’m quite concerned about people’s privacy, people’s freedoms. We want to see that we are not becoming a country like North Korea, Iran or China, where VPN controls are actually controlling people’s activities and creating a surveillance state,” she said.
Education Minister Erica Stanford, who has been given the job of coordinating the government’s response to calls for online reform, said a ban would not be a silver bullet that instantly solves the issue, but it would help change social norms towards safer online behaviour.
“When cars got faster, we added seat belts. When cars got faster, we added airbags and ABS… We now have the most powerful device in the world imaginable in the hands of our children and there are very few regulations to keep them safe. Frankly, parents, not only in New Zealand but around the world, are feeling completely helpless,” she said.
Bates said the need to act was urgent and New Zealand should become a “fast follower”, quickly adopting and adapting the lessons learned from other countries that were working in the same area.
“For some, however, it is easier to suggest that we sit and we wait, or easier to get on an ideological high-horse and defend an action. This inquiry highlights the reality that our young people are experiencing harm every single day,” he said.
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