{"id":17412,"date":"2026-05-15T05:15:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17412"},"modified":"2026-05-15T05:15:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:15:40","slug":"bill-banning-under-16s-from-social-media-put-on-hold-erica-stanford-confirms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17412","title":{"rendered":"Bill banning under-16s from social media put on hold, Erica Stanford confirms"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government has confirmed\u00a0legislation aiming to ban under-16s from social media<\/a>\u00a0is now on hold.<\/p>\n

Parliament\u00a0debated<\/a>\u00a0the matter on Wednesday after a select committee inquiry into the harms the online platforms cause.<\/p>\n

Labour agreed to support National’s proposal for a ban – while the Greens and ACT were opposed to the idea, saying it would be too easy to get around the rules, that at-risk groups could become more isolated as a result, and that social media harms more than just young people.<\/p>\n

National’s Catherine Wedd’s bill – which would impose the under-16s ban in line with Australia’s – was drawn from the biscuit-tin ballot in October, having been lodged last May.<\/p>\n

When RNZ sought an update on how\u00a0the committee’s findings<\/a>\u00a0would affect the legislation, Education Minister Erica Stanford – who had been tasked with reviewing legislation to reduce those harms – said it was on hold.<\/p>\n

“The government is undertaking a wider programme of work in this area and Wedd’s bill is on hold for the moment. We are continuing to work through the process and will have more to say soon,” Stanford said.<\/p>\n

\"National<\/p>\n

National’s Catherine Wedd is behind the bill.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Angus Dreaver<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

National had pushed ahead with the member’s bill rather than bringing the ban to Parliament as a government bill due to ACT’s refusal to support it.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Wedd’s bill remained at third among the member’s bills on Parliament’s order paper.<\/p>\n

Stanford did not respond to requests for further clarification.<\/p>\n

Wedd did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon\u00a0in November reiterated<\/a>\u00a0he was “deeply supportive” of a ban for under-16s, suggesting one would be introduced before the election.<\/p>\n

“Certainly before the term, yes we’ll have our first go at making sure we can put the ban for under-16s in place. And then I suspect it will be one of those issues that require ongoing work as well.”<\/p>\n

Australia’s ban, which came into force this month, requires specified social media platforms to take “reasonable steps” to ensure under-16s do not access them, with fines of up to $AU49.5m for serious or repeated breaches.<\/p>\n

rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government has confirmed\u00a0legislation aiming to ban under-16s from social media\u00a0is now on hold. Parliament\u00a0debated\u00a0the matter on Wednesday after a select committee inquiry into the harms the online platforms cause. Labour agreed to support National’s proposal for a ban – while the Greens and ACT were opposed to the idea, saying it would be too […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17413,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17412\/revisions\/17413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}