The Government has been developing its own approach, with National aiming to introduce legislation and secure its passage before the 2026 election, although exactly how age verification and enforcement would work remains under development.
Boys fear a ban will do more harm than good
For five Tauranga Boys’ College students, social media is not simply somewhere to waste an afternoon scrolling.
It is where friendships are maintained, plans are made, problems are shared and, for some, where they find the space to say things they struggle to voice elsewhere.
The boys estimate they spend between two and six hours a day on social media, using everything from Instagram and Snapchat to Discord, YouTube and Facebook.
Boy 1, who spends five to six hours a day online, said Instagram allowed him to meet people with similar interests and experiences.
He believed restrictions would represent a “really big shift” in his life.
“Social media has been like a really good thing for me because I can tell other people about my problems.
“I can’t really talk to other people about like same interests, like relatable problems that we have.”
Teenagers spoken to by the Herald reported spending several hours each day on social media. Photo / 123rf
Boy 2, who estimated he spent four to five hours a day online, said Snapchat was a way of talking to friends and questioned how teenagers would organise their lives without it.
“What are you going to do to connect, make plans with other people and organise things if you can’t communicate without meeting someone in person?”
For Boy 3, the issue went deeper than boredom or convenience.
He said social media provided a “safe space” to discuss his emotions with friends when he did not always feel able to have those conversations at home.
“If social media was banned, I would probably start deteriorating in that sense because I’d only have the time I spend in life with friends, like at school, to actually be able to vent and explain my problems.”
The boys believed adults could overlook the meaningful conversations occurring behind the hours of scrolling and messaging.
Boy 1 said social media had helped him through “a lot of hard times”, while Boy 3 worried restrictions could cut teenagers off from friends they trusted.
“If that gets taken away from them, I feel like it’ll cause a lot more harm than good.”
But none of the boys pretended social media was harmless.
They had encountered scams, misinformation, bullying, nudity, racism and homophobic abuse.
The Government is considering how restrictions on social media use for under-16s could work in New Zealand. Photo / 123rf
Boy 4 said he had been added to Snapchat group chats where people shared nudity, bullied and harassed others, and had seen students use TikTok to mock teachers and classmates.
“I think it’s very bad because it’s just basically bullying people.”
Boy 3 said he had become “desensitised” after years of encountering inappropriate material and misinformation.
Boy 5 acknowledged harmful aspects, but said banning social media could create new problems.
“Nothing’s ever perfect.”
And if restrictions arrived, the boys were sceptical they would keep teenagers offline for long.
They rattled off workarounds: VPNs (virtual private networks), alternative accounts and false birthdays.
“You could probably use a search engine and search how to get past it,” Boy 2 said.
“You can basically ask AI, and it would tell you how.”
Even if there was no way around the restrictions, Boy 2 doubted he would suddenly abandon his phone.
“I’d still be on my phone. It wouldn’t make me want to go outside more.”
‘Social media’s literally our lives’
For a group of St Hilda’s Collegiate School students, the prospect of life without social media prompted everything from practical objections to something approaching horror.
“Hell no,” Girl 2 said. “The day social media dies is the day I die.”
All eight girls said they spent at least three hours a day on various social media platforms, while some admitted weekend “doomscrolling” could stretch towards 10 hours.
Girl 1 said she was essentially online all day during the weekends, from waking around 8am until going to sleep around midnight.
But despite that heavy use, the girls were largely unconvinced that proposed restrictions for under-16s would keep teenagers off social media.
“A lot of people already fake their age on social media,” Girl 1 said.
“If social media gets banned for under-16s, they’re still going to do it anyway.”
VPNs were repeatedly suggested as an obvious workaround.
Girl 2 said students already used them to bypass restrictions blocking Snapchat, TikTok and other sites at school and during prep time at the hostel.
“We just put a VPN on, and then it works, and we sit there and scroll on TikTok.”
For the girls, social media was deeply embedded in how teenagers communicated.
“No one texts on messages unless you’re texting, like, old people,” Girl 2 said.
“I even text my mum on Snapchat. We have a streak.”
Some students said they primarily comminicated with their parents over Snapchat. Photo / 123rf
Girl 3 said adults underestimated how central social media had become to young people’s friendships.
“Adults don’t know how hard it is and how social media’s literally our lives.
“We get to keep up with all our friends.”
Girl 4 said platforms such as Snapchat also made it easier to stay connected with people met through sports and other activities, where swapping a Snapchat username felt more natural than exchanging phone numbers.
But the girls acknowledged their relationship with social media was complicated.
Girl 8 said it could encourage creativity through cooking, baking and fashion content, while also meaning teenagers spent less time physically with friends.
Girl 7 believed removing social media could push her towards more hobbies and sport – but noted that she also used TikTok to learn guitar.
She questioned whether banning social media would eliminate bullying.
“If there wasn’t social media, people wouldn’t bully online; they’d bully in person, which would be worse.”
Several had been on social media since primary school, with some joining during the Covid-19 pandemic and one recalling getting Snapchat in 2018.
Asked what might fill the hours if the platforms suddenly disappeared, Girl 5 said she would “stare at the wall”.
“I would pick up some other unhealthy habit. Maybe I would pick up vaping, I don’t know.”
Rachel Maher is the education correspondent for the New Zealand Herald. She also covers other topics such as Auckland issues, crime and local government. She started at the Herald as a breaking news journalist in 2022, before joining the Auckland team this year.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.