Protecting Kids Shouldn’t Mean Silencing Kiwi.
MEDIA RELEASE | 22 September 2025 | Protecting Kids Shouldn’t Mean Silencing Kiwis
“The impact of social media use is a serious concern for all Kiwis, and a challenge that must be addressed. However, we will not achieve this by abandoning core principles that ensure our way of life. In our upcoming submission, we will be calling on the Parliamentary Inquiry into online harm for young people to ensure important freedoms are not sacrificed on the altar of ’safety’,” says Nathan Seiuli, Executive Director of PILLAR (Protecting Individual Life, Liberty, and Rights).
"The Inquiry has an important role in opening a wider conversation about the harms young Kiwis experience online, but already there are causes for concern, with some commentators and submitters proposing more legislation (like the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act), regulating VPNs, and Australian model social media bans. Each of these is more fraught than the last.
“In Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada, greater control over online content has failed to meaningfully address the harm young people experience, and these same measures have too often become convenient tools to silence dissent.
“Benjamin Franklin claimed ’those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.’ That is not to be cavalier about the harm done online, especially to young people. It is to question whether heavy-handed ’safety measures’ ultimately achieve what they promise.
“It is both possible to acknowledge a legitimate problem, and challenge simplistic solutions that are not only likely to fail, but will concentrate more control over what individuals see and say. We must resist the temptation to outsource parental responsibility to government censors or tech monopolies. Protecting our children and preserving a free society go hand in hand.
PILLAR’s recommendations:
Empower Families and Communities: Support parents and schools with digital literacy tools and resources to help children navigate the online world safely.
Promote Industry Responsibility: Encourage businesses and platforms to adopt transparent moderation practices and offer stronger parental controls, without imposing one-size-fits-all state regulation.
Safeguard Freedom: Ensure any government intervention is proportionate, targeted, and consistent with New Zealanders’ rights to free expression and privacy.
Collaborative Approach: Build partnerships between civil society, educators, industry, and government rather than defaulting to top-down state control.
About PILLAR
PILLAR (Protecting Individual Life, Liberty, and Rights) is a civil society organisation dedicated to defending fundamental freedoms in New Zealand. Through research, advocacy, and education, PILLAR works to ensure that responses to modern challenges remain consistent with democratic values and the protection of individual rights.
ENDS