After her bill was pulled from the ballot, Wedd said it was \u201cprogress\u201d and could \u201cbe picked up as a Government bill\u201d going forward.<\/p>\n
It comes as Australia\u2019s social media ban for children under-16 is on the verge of taking force on December 10.<\/p>\n
TikTok and other social media sites are being banned in Australia for children under 16. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
Social media giants Meta and TikTok confirmed earlier this week that they will adhere to Australia\u2019s social media ban, but warned enforcement of the rules could prove extremely challenging.<\/p>\n
The ban includes removal of a huge number of underage accounts on the likes of Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.<\/p>\n
It will also include hefty fines for tech companies that breach the rules, such as not taking reasonable steps to incorporate age checks and prohibit young people from signing up.<\/p>\n
Young people will not be penalised if they skirt the system.<\/p>\n
Wedd said her bill was similar, in that the onus was on the social media companies rather than the children themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that children\u2019s access to social media and their risk of harm online is of increasing concern to parents, teachers, medical professionals and many groups across New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n
She acknowledged challenges with policing a ban, and said \u201cwe know that it is not going to be perfect\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we have to try because this is just getting so out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wedd, who has four children, said a ban would empower parents to say to their children it was \u201cnot okay\u201d to be on social media, and create a social norm.<\/p>\n
She cited issues such cyber bullying, addiction to social media, impact on mental health, sextortion and links to eating disorders as problems young people can face through social media. <\/p>\n
Auckland University of Technology senior lecturer Dr Melissa Gould, who is head of the critical media studies department, said she supported the intention to look at the social media environment and its impact on young people – both positive and negative.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut banning under-16s from having social media accounts is complicated and, frankly, quite problematic. <\/p>\n
\u201cThings like age-verification systems, defining exactly what is and isn\u2019t social media, and figuring out how to actually enforce a ban are all big challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe research gives us mixed results about whether bans on technology really work. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut what we do know is that young people are incredibly savvy when it comes to navigating social media (and any rules around how they can or should be used).<\/p>\n
\u201cAny conversations about young people and technology must centre their voices and experiences. We need to shift from talking about young people to talking with young people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke\u2019s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After her bill was pulled from the ballot, Wedd said it was \u201cprogress\u201d and could \u201cbe picked up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3255,3471,1060,76914,16574,76913,1061,10001,10474,124,71,1976,42,5838,185,1073,4754,17318,43,69,3111,29392,21311,26525,312,1072,6211,223,684,4157,61,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-106768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-address","9":"tag-among","10":"tag-ban","11":"tag-banning","12":"tag-bill","13":"tag-biscuit","14":"tag-children","15":"tag-closer","16":"tag-control","17":"tag-could","18":"tag-from","19":"tag-hawkes","20":"tag-headlines","21":"tag-help","22":"tag-is","23":"tag-media","24":"tag-members","25":"tag-mps","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-nz","28":"tag-out","29":"tag-perfect","30":"tag-problem","31":"tag-pulled","32":"tag-says","33":"tag-social","34":"tag-system","35":"tag-the","36":"tag-there","37":"tag-tin","38":"tag-to","39":"tag-top-news","40":"tag-top-stories","41":"tag-topnews","42":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}