Overview

• Parliament’s Education and Workforce Committee took evidence on Monday, with TikTok and Meta arguing a blunt prohibition would likely fail and drive teens to less regulated, riskier online spaces.
• ACT MP Parmjeet Parmar initiated the inquiry, while National MPs are preparing a member’s bill to legislate an under‑16 ban.
• TikTok said it enforces a 13+ minimum, defaults accounts under 16 to private, and has removed about 280,000 suspected under‑13 New Zealand accounts, a claim questioned by National MP Carl Bates.
• Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster cautioned that age‑assurance methods—from document checks to AI age‑estimation and data inference—raise significant privacy risks that should be worked through transparently before proceeding.
• Research presented to MPs reported substantial exposure of teens to vape marketing, and international context shows Australia’s restriction is reported to take effect on December 10, 2025, alongside polling that indicates broad support for bans on under‑14s in many countries.