After Australia, New Zealand proposes social media ban for under 16

According to Luxon, social media was exposing children to harmful content, addictive technology and pressures they were not equipped to deal with, affecting their family life, mental health, sleep and education (Photo: AP). New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon unveiled a proposed law on Monday that would ban children under 16 from using social media platforms, citing concerns over the impact of social media on young people.Luxon said that his party would introduce the bill in Parliament, with social media platforms facing fines of up to 10 per cent of their global revenue if they fail to comply.“We simply cannot accept the harm being done to a generation of New Zealand children”, he said in a statement.The proposal would cover platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook.However, as per AFP, messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, online gaming platforms like Roblox and AI applications with productivity uses, including ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot, would be excluded.According to Luxon, social media was exposing children to harmful content, addictive technology and pressures they were not equipped to deal with, affecting their family life, mental health, sleep a...