As published by The New Zealand Herald, 15 November 2025
I first wrote about this issue nearly three years ago, right here in this publication. What began as a conversation among a few individuals has since grown into something much larger.
NZ Herald readers who shared their stories, perspectives and hope became the foundation of B416, a movement grounded in the belief that childhood deserves protection. It’s a powerful reminder that, when people unite around something that truly matters, change follows and that publications like this open the conversations that make it possible.
Next week, our team and supporters from B416 will gather on the grounds of Parliament to deliver close to 45,000 signatures calling for a minimum age of 16 to use social media. We had hoped for 30,000, but support surged in the final few days, a powerful signal from parents, educators and citizens who recognise that something fundamental has shifted in how our children are growing up.
The petition climbed to just under 45,000 signatures, around 1.8 times the level of engagement per capita compared with a similar petition across the ditch, which became the foundation for change. It’s clear that New Zealanders want action that protects our young people and supports healthier, safer pathways for them as they come of age.
This week, the Prime Minister reiterated his deep support for protecting young people by restricting social media use under 16 and announced that the Government would introduce legislation before next year’s election. The Government has already shown leadership through its stance on phone-free schools, and it’s encouraging to see the same momentum building to protect children online. It’s a huge win and a sign that the petition has already succeeded before it’s even been delivered. For years, parents, teachers, clinicians and youth advocates have been shouting into the wind. Today, it feels as if New Zealand has finally started listening.
This is a turning point.
The wellbeing of our children is no longer a private concern whispered in school carparks. It’s a public priority being debated in Parliament. And that matters, because what’s at stake isn’t technology. It’s childhood itself, and with it the healthy development and bright futures of our young people.
The cost of growing up online
We no longer have to speculate about the impact of early, unmanaged exposure to social media. Over the past few years, the change in young people has accelerated at a pace no parent or teacher can ignore. Children are entering adolescence earlier, becoming anxious sooner and carrying pressures that simply didn’t exist a decade ago. Rates of depression, self-harm and eating disorders have surged, and the pathways into harm are clearer now than ever.
What was once an uneasy feeling in many households has solidified into shared experience. Parents talk about losing their children not to substances but to screens. Teachers describe attention spans collapsing and empathy evaporating in classrooms where students arrive exhausted from online drama that unfolded overnight.
“Students, fuelled by social media and energy drinks, are exhausted, disengaged and withdrawn. They’re living in a parallel universe,” wrote Patrick Walsh, headmaster at Sacred Heart College, in a recent NZ Herald piece that resonated with parents across the country.
It’s not just emotional distress. The financial cost is real. Some schools now spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on counsellors to deal with issues directly linked to social media. Money intended for learning is instead diverted to crisis management.
And behind those statistics sit young people like 17-year-old Olivia. She describes the grip social media had on her early teenage years: a cycle of eating disorders, self-harm, frantic comparison and the belief she needed to be available to friends 24 hours a day. Her mum recalls it as “an addict’s response”, a feeling many parents now recognise.
A 13-year-old Auckland boy puts it simply: “At school, something small can happen, and overnight on group chat it turns into something big. The next day, everyone knows except you.”
These aren’t isolated stories. They are the daily reality of growing up online, and we’re finally acknowledging that it is not sustainable. For years, we’ve been told that the internet can’t be regulated and parents must somehow hold back a tide engineered to overwhelm them. But the evidence now tells a different story: that when governments act, the landscape shifts.
Governments lead, tech companies follow
That shift is already happening overseas. Australia has moved decisively, introducing fines of up to A$50 million for platforms that allow under-16s to hold accounts. Meta and TikTok have confirmed they will comply, with Meta already preparing to remove hundreds of thousands of underage users. France, Ireland and Denmark are not far behind.
What’s striking is not just the policy itself but how quickly tech companies respond when required to do so. For years, they have insisted that enforcing minimum age rules is impossible. Then a government steps in, and suddenly it isn’t.
This isn’t about censorship or moral panic. It’s about acknowledging what child development experts, clinicians and teachers have been trying to tell us: that adolescence is a critical stage, and delaying exposure to the most addictive environment yet created gives young people the chance to build identity, resilience and confidence offline first.
We set ages for driving, drinking, marriage and work because we understand that some thresholds matter. It’s time to treat the digital world with the same level of common sense.
The evidence
In early 2024, the Government banned cellphones from high schools nationwide. Stratford High School principal Cam Stone says the results have been dramatic: “It’s made a huge difference. It’s taken away the distraction.” Other educators have described it as “one of the best decisions the ministry has made in five years”. NCEA results improved across every level, especially for students transitioning from intermediate to high school.
A large-scale study by the University of Pennsylvania, involving 17,000 students, found that mandatory in-class phone collection led to higher grades, particularly among lower-performing and first-year students. Importantly, those students later became more supportive of phone restrictions, recognising the benefits themselves.
The data reflects what parents already know. Rates of anxiety, depression and self-harm among teens, especially girls, have surged since social media became universal. Eating disorders among New Zealand teens are increasingly linked to social media, with algorithms pushing endless body-image content to vulnerable young users. Even insiders who built these systems admit that the harm won’t stop without oversight.
As one Meta whistleblower said: “Harm should be treated like money, with independent auditors, reporting and accountability. It won’t happen unless it’s regulated.”
Accountability, not blame
That’s the heart of this movement: accountability. For too long, social media companies have written their own rules and marked their own homework. When harm occurs, they blame parents, not platforms. But no family can compete with algorithms engineered for profit.
In the US, two Meta whistleblowers recently told a Senate inquiry that the company “knew children under 13 were being exposed to sexual content, harassment and predatory behaviour” and yet internal research documenting this was “suppressed or deleted”. One researcher said they were instructed to “swallow that ick” rather than record what a 10-year-old had experienced in a VR environment. Another testified, “We built safety tools we were never allowed to launch,” because growth mattered more than protecting kids.
And the consequences of that inaction aren’t abstract. The stakes are immediate. An Auckland teacher recently described students traumatised after a shooting video spread during the school day. A 13-year-old girl changed schools to escape relentless misogynistic bullying that followed her between classroom and screen. And Annabelle’s death at 13, a tragedy her parents say happened “impossibly fast”, shows how quickly online harm can spiral beyond a family’s reach.
Documentary filmmaker Nadia Maxwell tested this world herself, posing online as a 13-year-old girl. Within 22 minutes of being on TikTok, suicide-related content appeared. On Instagram, videos of extremely thin women, dieting and “perfect features” filled her feed, even when she followed only innocent accounts.
“It was deeply unsettling,” she said. “Teens don’t need to go looking for it. If you linger, the algorithm feeds you more.”
Instagram’s new safety settings failed. Harmful content stayed visible, and reported material wasn’t removed. “These companies have proven time and again they will prioritise profit over safety,” Maxwell said. “The longer kids stay online, the more money they make. The algorithm is ready to exploit any vulnerable moment.”
This is why regulation matters. It levels the playing field. It declares that protecting children isn’t optional, it’s the foundation of a civilised society.
What young people are saying
Even teenagers see the problem. One 14-year-old told researchers, “I hate how reliant I am. A lot of our lives are based on it, but when you think about it, all your time’s getting sucked by this little device.”
Youth MP Arden Morunga said it succinctly on the One Young Mind Podcast: “If we’re going to talk about child rights, we also have to talk about child protection.” It’s a reminder that young people aren’t asking for less autonomy, they’re asking for safer boundaries so they can grow up without being overwhelmed by forces they can’t control.
Olivia agrees that, while some teens might try to get around a ban, “it makes it a lot harder. And honestly, there are probably a lot of kids who think, gosh, I wish I could just get off my phone for a week”.
Of course, there will be questions about enforcement and education. Critics will say bans are hard to police or that young people will find loopholes. But that’s not a reason to do nothing. Every public safety measure faced resistance before becoming common sense: seatbelts, car seats, tobacco laws.
What those measures did was change social norms, making it unacceptable to put a child in a car without a seatbelt. A ban on social media for under-16s does the same. It removes pressure from families to fight alone and creates a new normal where childhood is protected.
The first step is a statement of values. This one says: we believe in childhood.
That vision has caught fire. What started as a small campaign has become a national conversation, not about fear, but hope. About what we can build together when we stop pretending that endless scrolling is inevitable.
This week, we’ll deliver those close to 45,000 signatures and the Government is signalling it’s ready to act. Education Minister Erica Stanford is leading the work. The Prime Minister has acknowledged that we already restrict what children can do in the physical world, so why not the online one?
It’s an idea whose time has come.
Leading with courage
For me, this moment feels deeply personal and profoundly hopeful. I’ve spoken to too many parents who’ve watched their children change, not through tragedy, but through exposure to a digital world that never switches off. I’ve met kids who wish they could stop scrolling but can’t.
That silence is over.
We can’t keep collecting data on youth wellbeing without naming the cause. We can’t keep offering resilience workshops without addressing the systems that make kids need them. And we can’t keep outsourcing our children’s safety to companies that profit from their distress.
The Government’s support is a huge step forward, but it must be matched by courage and care in how policy is designed. This isn’t about punishing teens or blaming parents. It’s about partnership, between Government, schools, families and tech platforms, to build a healthier, safer digital world.
Next week, as we stand on the steps of Parliament, we’ll bring not just a petition but a sense of possibility. The belief that a small country can lead where others hesitate. That New Zealand can once again be the place that protects its children first and debates the politics later. We’ve always led on issues that matter. Now we can lead again, this time in safeguarding childhood in the digital age.
This week, we spoke up for our kids. Now, the country is listening.
This is the moment we start to turn the tide.
