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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he’s open to looking at proposals to introduce a minimum age for children to access social media but it’s not on the Government’s immediate work agenda.
Anthony Albanese, the Australian Prime Minister, is expected to formally announce an age verification policy later on Tuesday, with local media reporting that his administration wants to introduce tighter controls on the use of social media and gaming platforms.
The Guardian Australia says the Albanese Government hasn’t specified a minimum age yet, but it could be higher than 14, which is the age South Australia is looking at.
Asked on Tuesday morning if that idea had merit to him, Luxon responded: “Yeah, it is something I have been following as well from around the world, as you know with mobile phone bans and things like that”.
“I think I am up for looking at all of that,” the Prime Minister said.
He said he had put parental controls on his children’s iPad and there was a “good suite of tools available for parents to do that”.
“Whether there should be mandatory requirements or not, that’s not something that I’ve looked at. Certainly, I would encourage parents to know what their kids are looking at online.”
In reported comments, Albanese said his government would do “all we can” to protect children.
“Parents are worried sick about this. We know they’re working without a map - no generation has faced this challenge before.
“Which is why my message to Australian parents is we’ve got your back. We’re listening and determined to act to get this right.”
South Australia has been at the forefront of the push for age verification across the Tasman, with Premier Peter Malinauskas saying government intervention was necessary.
“We’re going to ban the social media services from providing access in that first place and where they do it and do it knowingly, they are subject to severe punishment, heavy financial penalties that will act as a major deterrent to ensure this doesn’t occur in the future.”
The Australian Federal Government earlier this year funded a trial of online age verification technology. It was initially limited to stopping under-18-year-olds from accessing adult content, like pornography, but has now been expanded to look at restricting 13-16-year-olds from accessing social media.
It’s said to be awaiting the results of that trial before specifying a minimum age for social media use.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.
