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  "description": "The select committee recommended wider measures.",
  "path": "/the-enemy-of-my-enemy-opposition-parties-team-up-to-push-back-against-social-media-ban/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-16T22:50:27.000Z",
  "site": "https://goodoil.news",
  "tags": [
    "Centrist",
    "May 15, 2026",
    "here",
    "Receive our free newsletter here",
    "@NZFreeSpeech"
  ],
  "textContent": "Summarised by Centrist\n\n**National and Labour both support a proposed ban on under-16s using social media. But ACT and the Greens say a ban risks being ineffective, easy to bypass and potentially harmful to vulnerable young people.**\n\nThe disagreement comes despite broad agreement across Parliament that social media is causing real harm.\n\nBut ACT and the Greens split from National and Labour on the proposed solution. Swarbrick said teenagers would find ways around a ban. “We are not going to be able to get rid of social media. We can’t turn off the internet,” she said. She also warned that at-risk groups, including rainbow communities, could become more isolated.\n\n> Right call to pause on u-16 social media ban – now halt the machinery built to enforce it\n>\n> The Free Speech Union welcomes Education Minister Erica Stanford's confirmation today that Catherine Wedd's bill banning under-16s from social media has been placed on hold.\n>\n> \"Credit where…\n>\n> — 🗣 Free Speech Union ✊ (@NZFreeSpeech) May 15, 2026\n\nParmar said the select committee process “was not done properly”. She also warned that bans could push young people “into darker corners of the internet” with fewer safeguards, citing overseas reports of teenagers bypassing age restrictions by using makeup or fake facial features.\n\nParmar argued the ban appeared more political than practical, calling the select committee process a “rubber-stamping exercise” shaped by party narratives.\n\nCatherine Wedd’s member’s bill, modelled on Australia’s under-16s ban, could pass with Labour’s support. But Education Minister Erica Stanford says the bill is now being deprioritised while the government works on broader online harms legislation, with an update expected next month.\n\nThe select committee also recommended wider measures, including bans on deepfake and “nudify” apps, algorithm transparency, online advertising restrictions, public education campaigns and an independent regulator.\n\n**Read more over at RNZ** here**,** here,**and** here\n\nReceive our free newsletter here",
  "title": "The enemy of my enemy…: Opposition parties team up to push back against social media ban",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-16T23:45:56.317Z"
}