Following Australia’s trailblazing social-media ban, New Zealand has become the latest country to introduce a bill banning younger teens from a range of social media platforms and AI companions in
response to addiction concerns.
On Monday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon introduced the “Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill,” which would set
a minimum age restriction in New Zealand of 16 years for access to social media and gaming platforms deemed harmful for children.
“One in three children aged between 13 and 17 are now spending at least five hours on social media a day,” Luxon said. “Social media is exposing them to
harmful content, addictive technology and pressures they are not equipped to deal with and it’s affecting their family life, mental health, sleep and education.”
advertisement
advertisement
According to the bill, age restrictions would apply to platforms that “provide or facilitate the exchange of content between users and have features that are
associated with an increased risk of harm to children.”
This likely covers all major platforms using recommendation algorithms, endless scrollable
feeds, feedback features (such as “likes” and “upvotes”), and time-dependent posts, including user “stories.”
If the bill
is signed into law, New Zealand would become one of the first countries to establish age restrictions on social AI companions designed to “simulate an emotional connection or personal
relationship with the user,” per the document.
Excluded from the bill’s restricted platforms
include messaging apps, like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Discord; as well as gaming hubs, like Roblox and Minecraft; music streaming apps; educational message boards; and professional networking
apps, such as LinkedIn.
Under the terms of the bill, impacted companies would need to produce annual risk assessments of “harm to all children under
the age of 18 years on their platform…and how they are mitigating those risks.”
New Zealand’s secretary of internal affairs would be
responsible for monitoring and enforcing platforms’ compliance with the bill, with the ability to gather and share relevant information.
The country’s decision to introduce this bill comes as other regions – Greece, Indonesia, Austria, Denmark, Slovenia, Germany, Spain,
France, various states in the U.S. and most recently, Turkey – have already taken similar actions.
Despite
platforms like Meta, which have shared updates on
how many teen accounts they are removing in compliance to regional social media restriction laws, some reports depict the ineffectiveness of similar bills.
Earlier this month, Australia’s eSafety Commission found that 81.5% of underage users
in the region continued to access restricted platforms, adding that teens who did reduce their social media usage began engaging more on messaging and apps and online games.
