New Zealand Moves to Restrict Teen Access to Social Media

New Zealand is poised to become the latest country restricting teen access to social media. According to Bloomberg, a new government Online Safety bill would require "high-risk" platforms — Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Facebook — to take "reasonable steps" to verify that users are at least 16. The bill, however, is unlikely to move forward before the country's next election in November.

With this, New Zealand joins a trend Australia set in motion: governments across different regions are weighing or already rolling out similar restrictions aimed at protecting teens from harmful content and excessive social-media engagement.

But even within Australia itself, the first six months of results aren't especially convincing. A report from the country's eSafety Commissioner found that most underage teens are still using social apps; no meaningful change has been recorded in problematic online behavior or teen wellbeing; and teens who did cut back on social media simply shifted that time to messaging apps and online gaming instead.

These results came in even though platforms removed tens of thousands of accounts — Meta recently reported removing 750,000 underage accounts in Australia. Part of the problem lies in the age-verification system itself: many teens simply enter an older birth date and sail right through the check.

That's an important signal for marketers and brands: pushing teens off a platform entirely doesn't stop them from socializing — it just shifts them toward less-monitored, "fringe" platforms, making audience strategy that much harder.