Social media ban: National unsure if Act, NZ First will support bill; David Seymour compares bill to ‘dog with fleas’

Author: Julia Gabel,
Publish Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2026, 3:47pm

Education Minister Erica Stanford says New Zealand First and Act could still support National’s plans to ban social media for under 16s – despite Act leader David Seymour calling the proposal a “dog with fleas dying before our eyes”.

Stanford for the first time revealed more details about the bill on Tuesday, saying it would include establishing a social media “regulator” in New Zealand – one of the recommendations from the Parliamentary select committee inquiry into the proposal.

Stanford and National will most likely need Labour to support the bill as Act and NZ First remain staunchly opposed to implementing a ban, similar to what was recently rolled out in Australia.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen – people make different decisions at Select Committees and Cabinet,” Stanford said.

“I don’t want to presuppose anyone’s decisions until we actually go to Cabinet and have that fulsome discussion.”

Stanford said the bill would create a New Zealand regulator.

In Australia, the eSafety Commissioner has been given the responsibility of wrangling the ban – implementing the ban was delayed to give the regulator time to work out logistics, including trialling the effectiveness of various age-detection technologies.

“I’ve already talked about the fact that we’re increasing the age restriction from 13 up to 16 but also creating a regulator, keeping ourselves in line with Australia.

“But there are some key differences – that we learned in Australia – that they’re now having to fix up and that we will implement.”

Seymour said the experience in Australia proved a ban did not work.

His concerns included young people who defy a ban being pushed “underground” and unable to seek help from adults if they experienced online harm, over fears of getting in trouble for accessing social media when they should not have.

“It [in Australia] is driving them on to other parts of the internet that are less safe,” he said.

“It is a dog with fleas and it is dying before our eyes.”

Although NZ First has been supportive of the “intent” of the law change, a spokesman earlier this month said the party “would not be supporting the progression of this legislation”.

The Government has been looking at a ban for about a year, following a National Party member’s bill to bring one about.

Labour’s technology spokesman Reuben Davidson, who has seen the bill, said Labour was unable to form a position as Stanford had not given the Labour caucus a copy of the bill for critique.

Stanford said she had worked well with Davidson. She was unable to give an actual copy of the bill to Davidson to present to his colleagues, but she would be providing a briefing to the Opposition party on Thursday.

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.