NZ moves to ban social media for teens

AI Summary

New Zealand's conservative coalition government plans to introduce a bill to ban children under 16 from using social media. The bill would include fines up to 10% of global revenue for platforms failing to verify user ages with digital identity documents and facial recognition technologies, citing concerns over mental health and addictive technology.

Sydney: New Zealand's ​conservative coalition ​government will introduce a ​bill in Parliament on Monday that seeks to ban children under 16 ‌from ⁠using ⁠social media, and proposes fines ​of up to 10% of a platform's ​global revenue for non-compliance.The bill would require social media ​platforms to take ⁠reasonable steps ‌to verify users' ​ages, ​including by using existing ⁠account information, facial technology and ​digital identity documents."We simply cannot ​accept the harm being done to a generation of New Zealand children," Prime Minister Christopher Luxon ‌said in a statement."Social media is exposing them ​to harmful ​content, ⁠addictive technology and pressures they are not equipped to deal with and ​it's affecting their family life, mental health, sleep, and education," Luxon said.