{"slug": "new-zealand-targets-social-media-and-ai-companions-for-under-16s", "title": "New Zealand targets social media and AI companions for under-16s", "summary": "New Zealand proposed a bill on August 24, 2026, to bar children under 16 from TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and AI companions, with fines up to $40 million or 10% of global revenue for non-compliance. The Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill would require high-risk platforms to implement age-verification and conduct child-safety risk assessments, overseen by a new regulator within the Department of Internal Affairs. The measure, which follows similar actions in Australia, the UK, Canada, and Brazil, still requires parliamentary approval and a six-month compliance period.", "body_md": "• 3 min read\n\n# New Zealand targets social media and AI companions for under-16s\n\nNew Zealand proposes barring under-16s from TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and AI companions, with fines reaching $40 million or 10% of global revenue.\n\nSource: [Mashable](https://mashable.com/tech/new-zealand-social-media-ban)\n\nNew Zealand plans to bar children under 16 from using major social platforms and AI companions under a bill announced on August 24, 2026. The proposed **Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill** would cover TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook, while placing new age-verification and child-safety obligations on the companies operating them.\n\nThe measure is not yet law. New Zealand’s Parliament must approve the bill first; after approval, covered platforms would have six months to comply. The proposal would also establish an online safety regulator within the country’s Department of Internal Affairs.\n\n“Obviously, parents have a role to play in monitoring what social media platform their children are on, but so do social media companies. We have protections to keep children safe in the real world and we need them in the virtual world too.”\n\n## Age checks would be the platforms' responsibility\n\nThe bill would require “high risk” platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent under-16 users from accessing their services. The proposed mechanisms include age-estimation tools and digital ID services, but the legislation does not specify which technology companies must deploy, what accuracy threshold they would need to meet or how the government would handle users who cannot or will not provide identity data.\n\nThat leaves privacy and implementation questions unresolved. Age estimation can require analysis of a user’s face, voice or behavior, while digital ID systems can create a separate identity and data-retention burden. The bill text, as summarized in the government’s announcement, establishes the obligation but does not settle those technical choices.\n\nRecommended reading\n\nStarlink starts taking orders in Vietnam\n\nMaya Lindqvist • • 2 min read\n\nThe legislation would also require social media companies to regularly assess and report potential risks to users under 18. Those assessments would extend beyond checking a person’s age at sign-up: platforms would have to document how their services could expose minors to harm and report those risks to the regulator.\n\nThe bill says:\n\n“New Zealand’s current regulatory framework does not adequately safeguard children online. While some protections exist, there is no overarching framework that regulates social media platforms or platforms with social AI companions to help protect children from the risk of online harm.”\n\nThe full [Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill](https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2026/339/en/latest/) defines the proposed legal framework. The government’s [press statement](https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-moves-ban-u16s-social-media) describes the measure as a shared responsibility between parents and technology companies.\n\n## Fines could reach $40 million\n\nPlatforms that fail to meet the requirements could face fines of up to **$40 million or 10 percent of a platform’s global revenue**. The source material does not clarify how that penalty would be calculated, whether the two figures represent alternative maximums, or which corporate entity would be responsible for payment.\n\nFor US users, the immediate effect is limited: this is a New Zealand proposal, not a US restriction, and no US compliance date follows from it. For American platforms, a New Zealand service-access rule would add another jurisdiction-specific age gate to products that already operate across different privacy and online-safety regimes.\n\nThe proposal follows Australia’s social-media restrictions for children under 16 and similar political efforts in the United Kingdom, Canada and Brazil. New Zealand’s version also explicitly includes **social AI companions**, treating conversational systems aimed at users as part of the same child-safety problem as algorithmic social platforms.\n\nThe proposal does not yet settle Parliament’s approval, the final definition of a “high risk” platform, the regulator’s enforcement powers or the permitted age-verification methods. Until those details are set, it does not provide a working access-control specification.\n\n[Maya Lindqvist](/authors/maya-lindqvist/)\n\nCulture Editor\n\nMaya explores gaming, streaming, and the internet as a place where people actually live. From deep-dives into creator economies to the anthropology of digital communities, she tracks platform drama and cultural shifts so you don't have to. She believes the best tech stories are fundamentally about human behavior.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/new-zealand-targets-social-media-and-ai-companions-for-under-16s", "canonical_source": "https://forgeeks.net/new-zealand-under-16-social-media-ban/", "published_at": "2026-08-24 18:01:41+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-25 14:16:26.416917+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["New Zealand", "TikTok", "Instagram", "Snapchat", "Facebook", "Department of Internal Affairs", "Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/new-zealand-targets-social-media-and-ai-companions-for-under-16s", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/new-zealand-targets-social-media-and-ai-companions-for-under-16s.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/new-zealand-targets-social-media-and-ai-companions-for-under-16s.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/new-zealand-targets-social-media-and-ai-companions-for-under-16s.jsonld"}}