The New Zealand government has disclosed that plan are ongoing to restrict children below the age of 16 from accessing the social media in a bid to promote online safety for the minors.
The authorities made the disclosure stating that the proposed initiative stating that the platforms would face fines of up to 10 per cent of their global revenue for failing to comply.
The proposed Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill would place the responsibility on social media companies to prevent under-16s from accessing their platforms.
Under the proposed framework, platforms could use several methods to verify users’ ages, including information already associated with an account, facial age-estimation technology, digital identity services and formal identification documents.
The measures would apply to major social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook.
In a statement on Monday, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the government could not ignore what he described as the harm social media was causing to young people.
“We simply cannot accept the harm being done to a generation of New Zealand children,” Luxon said.
He said social media was exposing children to harmful content, addictive technologies and pressures they were not adequately equipped to handle, with consequences for their family relationships, mental health, sleep and education.
The Prime Minister acknowledged that enforcing the proposed ban would be difficult and that some children could find ways around the restrictions.
“I won’t pretend that it will be simple or that it will be perfect,” Luxon said, adding that the government would not get every child off social media but that the issue was too important not to attempt to address.