The New Zealand government on Monday announced plans to ban social media for children under 16.
The bill would require social media platforms the government deemed "high risk" to take reasonable steps to check that users are over 16 by using existing account information, facial age estimation, digital ID services and formal ID.
The law would cover platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube and X.
Platforms would be required to regularly assess the risks they posed and report on how those risks were being identified and reduced. Under the bill, companies that failed to comply could face penalties of up to 10% of their global revenue.
Education Minister Erica Stanford said the government was "taking action to protect young people online, backing parents and holding Big Tech" accountable.
"Right now, too many of the risks children face online are going unchecked. Harmful content, addictive design and rapidly emerging technologies are reaching young people while protections haven't kept pace," she said.
"Parents are doing their best, but they shouldn't be expected to take on the world's biggest technology companies alone."
She said responsibility sits with the platforms, with no penalties proposed for children, parents or caregivers.
"We protect children from harm in the physical world. It's time we took their safety online just as seriously," Stanford said.
The bill must still pass through parliament. Both coalition partners, New Zealand First and ACT, are opposed to it, while the opposition Labour Party is yet to declare its support.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said his party would not support the proposed law.
"We have been concerned with the proposed legislation and the direction and slippery slope that legislation like this will inevitably take our country," he wrote on Facebook.
He said there was no method that would fulfil the bill's intent without banning VPNs or the use of digital ID to enforce the law.
"This has been proven with the colossal failure of Australia bringing in similar measures that National want to bring in now."
Australia became the first country to restrict social media access for under-16s in December 2025.
Peters said the bill "would lead to a soviet era outcome that would be guaranteed to take New Zealanders' freedoms and privacy away."
ACT leader David Seymour called the bill "an unserious solution to a serious problem" and said the party would exercise its agree to disagree clause and vote against it.
"ACT won't support a policy just because it sounds tough or polls well. The test should be whether it works, and whether the cure is worse than the disease."
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