Full Breakdown
Labour’s “Digital Duty of Care” expands New Zealand’s online safety agenda
By Drooid · · How we work
Background & Context
New Zealand’s debate over online safety intensified after National introduced the Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Assessment) Bill on August 24. The bill targets “For-you” recommendation feeds, endless scroll, like counts and time-limited content for users under 18, and imposes penalties of up to 10 percent of a platform’s global annual revenue. Both major parties have supported a ban on social-media accounts for children under 16, but Labour’s policy moves beyond age-based bans to a broader “duty of care” model inspired by the European Union’s Digital Services Act and Australia’s recent reforms.
Key Provisions of Labour’s Policy
- Under-16 ban – enforced by an independent regulator, with compliance checks such as facial age estimation, digital-ID services or existing account data.
- Digital duty of care – extends to gaming sites, AI chatbots and pornographic websites. Platforms must take “reasonable steps” to keep children away from harmful content, including addictive design features like infinite scrolling.
- Algorithm choice – users would be able to opt out of algorithm-driven feeds and view only posts from accounts they follow.
- Penalties – Labour proposes fines comparable to National’s plan, potentially up to 10 percent of a company’s global revenue for breaches.
- Funding – the regulator would be financed initially with $30.7 million earmarked by National for its own social-media regulator.
Official Statements & Responses
- She noted that the ban will be modelled on Australia’s system and that fines could reach 10 percent of global revenue.
- Rachel Tan, media-harm and cyber-law expert at the University of Waikato, warned that the policy’s success will hinge on the regulator’s powers, the definition of “reasonable compliance,” and safeguards for freedom of expression.
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
- Sources differ on how “harm” will be defined.
- Enforcement mechanisms remain unclear. Labour cites heavy penalties and international coordination, but experts note the market size of five million users may limit the ability to compel global platforms without clear territorial reach.
Verbatim Quotes
- “I’d say that the question is not simply whether New Zealand introduces a social media ban, but whether it develops a comprehensive and enforceable regulatory framework that addresses the underlying causes of online harm,” — Tan. This
What’s Next
Labour says it will launch the select-committee process within the first 100 days of a potential government, using that period to refine the definition of “harm” and set up the independent regulator. The party also plans to address deep-fake AI image generation as part of the same duty-of-care framework, rather than through separate legislation.