{
  "id": 3108586,
  "title": "New Zealand to pursue social media ban for children under 16",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/24/new-zealand-to-pursue-social-media-ban-for-children-under-16",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-08-24T20:36:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Record",
    "slug": "the-record",
    "url": "https://therecord.media/new-zealand-to-pursue-social-media-ban-for-children"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "New Zealand's government has introduced legislation to ban social media use for children under 16. The proposed law, known as the Online Safety Bill, would require high-risk social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Facebook to take \"reasonable steps\" to ensure users are over 16. This could involve using tools like facial age estimation, digital ID services, formal IDs, and existing account information for verification.\n\nAccording to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, social media is exposing children to \"harmful content, addictive technology and pressures they are not equipped to deal with\", affecting their family life, mental health, sleep, and education. The bill also proposes fines of up to 10% of a company's global revenue for non-compliance, as reported by The Island Sri Lanka and Malay Mail.\n\nThe move follows similar bans or restrictions in countries like Australia, the UK, France, and Greece. Luxon emphasized the need for protections in the virtual world, just as there are in the real world, to keep children safe. The government has not specified which other \"high-risk\" platforms could be impacted, but the bill aims to put greater responsibilities on tech companies to protect children online.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Techmeme",
        "title": "New Zealand plans a bill to ban social media for under-16s, requiring \"high risk\" platforms to check user ages or face penalties of up to 10% of global revenue (Tracy Withers/Bloomberg)",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/24/new-zealand-plans-a-bill-to-ban-social-media-for-under-16s-requiring",
        "published": "2026-08-24T05:01:38.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Mashable",
        "title": "New Zealand to ban social media for kids under 16",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/24/new-zealand-to-ban-social-media-for-kids-under-16",
        "published": "2026-08-24T09:54:05.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}