New Zealand Introduces Bill to Ban Under-16s From Social Media

New Zealand's government introduced the Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill, which would require high-risk social platforms to take reasonable steps to keep under-16s from holding accounts. Age checks could use existing account data, facial age estimation, digital ID or formal ID; companies could face penalties up to 10% of global revenue, while children and parents would face none. The bill would also require child-risk assessments, cover AI companion platforms and establish an online-safety regulator in the Department of Internal Affairs. ACT and New Zealand First said they would oppose it, so it lacked enough coalition support and could not complete Parliament's three readings before the October 1 dissolution.