{"id":527016,"date":"2026-07-15T08:45:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/527016\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T08:45:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:45:14","slug":"david-seymour-suggests-smartphones-could-be-banned-for-under-16s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/527016\/","title":{"rendered":"David Seymour suggests smartphones could be banned for under-16s"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Act leader has suggested smartphones could be banned for under-16-year-olds.<\/p>\n

In a speech to a business leaders’ dinner on Wednesday night, David Seymour said it’s clear anxiety, depression and self-harm has increased in children and young people since the advent of smartphones.<\/p>\n

He has suggested Parliament could prohibit the purchase, possession and supply of smartphones to under-16s, instead only allowing teenagers to use ‘dumb-phones’, which don’t have access to social media apps.<\/p>\n

“We already prohibit adults from supplying minors with tobacco and alcohol, for example.<\/p>\n

“The object is tangible, the rule is understandable, and reasonable adults support the purpose of the law. A smartphone is just as tangible.”<\/p>\n

Citing political commentator Ani O’Brien, Seymour said that instead of regulating the platforms, the device should be targeted instead.<\/p>\n

“Put simply, why don’t we deal with the hardware instead of the software?”<\/p>\n

The government is already considering a social media ban<\/a> in line with Australia’s and the United Kingdom’s – but the Act Party has said it doesn’t support it.<\/p>\n

Seymour said a ban on social media is too hard to implement, and won’t work.<\/p>\n

\"Caucus<\/p>\n

David Seymour.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Mark Papalii<\/p>\n

Universal age verification could encroach on the internet privacy and freedom of adults – and would likely be ineffective in preventing teens from accessing sites, he said.<\/p>\n

“And nobody seems capable of clearly defining what should be banned anyway,” Seymour said.<\/p>\n

“Is YouTube social media? WhatsApp? Discord? Reddit? Gaming platforms with chat functions?<\/p>\n

“The moment you draw the line, technology changes and makes the line obsolete.”<\/p>\n

Seymour said his usual instinct was that government “should get out of the way”, but in some cases, intervention could help.<\/p>\n

“I’m not saying this to launch a policy.<\/p>\n

“To be clear, I don’t even know if the government trying to ban smartphones for under-16s is a good idea.”<\/p>\n

But he said this would be a better alternative to a social media ban, and that in some cases government intervention could help.<\/p>\n

He said the government could issue clear guidance against smartphones for children – issuing that for schools, youth organisations and parents.<\/p>\n

But it could also go a step further, he said, and ban the sale, supply and possession of smartphones.<\/p>\n

“Parliament could pass a law defining what constitutes a “dumb phone” suitable for a person under 16.<\/p>\n

“Prohibit the purchase, possession, and supply of smartphones for under-16s.”<\/p>\n

He said children could be given “dumb phones” instead when they need them.<\/p>\n

“Give them access to the internet when it helps them learn.<\/p>\n

“But stop pretending they need the most powerful attention-capturing device ever created sitting in their pocket throughout every hour of childhood.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Act leader has suggested smartphones could be banned for under-16-year-olds. In a speech to a business leaders’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[342,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-527016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-mobile","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527016","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=527016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}