Keep Kids Safe Online Without Sacrificing Freedom
To the Members of the Education and Workforce Select Committee
RE: the Committee’s inquiry into the harm young New Zealanders encounter online and the roles of Government, business, and society in addressing those harms.
New Zealanders want young people to be safer online. At PILLAR we share that aim. But how we pursue it matters. In a free society, freedom of expression and privacy are not luxuries. They are foundations.
The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act requires that any limits on those rights be demonstrably justified, proportionate, and the least-intrusive option. Parents, not the state, hold the primary responsibility to guide their children, consistent with their evolving capacities.
The Problem With Banning “Social Media” For Under-16s
The problem begins with definition. What even counts as “social media”? Messaging apps, gaming platforms, video sites, and comment sections all overlap. Ban one, and kids migrate to another. On top of that is what experts call the age-assurance trilemma: restrictions are either easily bypassed, highly disruptive for adults, or intrusive on privacy through ID checks and surveillance. Overseas, attempts in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom to regulate broad categories of “online harm” have created costly systems that censor lawful speech while doing little to reduce risk.
What Is The Solution?
There is a smarter path. Instead of building universal ID checkpoints, we should put families at the centre and focus state action where it is strongest: on clearly illegal harms such as child exploitation and grooming. Practical, least-intrusive measures can make a real difference within 12 months.
Our recommendations:
Make parental approval and family-linking the default on devices and app stores.
Build digital resilience through school curricula and short parent training.
Create one front door for complaints and integrate tools like StopNCII to block re-uploads of abusive material.
Together, these steps protect children, empower parents, and preserve the freedoms that keep New Zealand a resilient democracy.
Sign The Petition Below!
This petition is addressed to the Members of the Education and Workforce Select Committee, from PILLAR (Protecting Individual Life, Liberty, and Rights) on behalf of its signees, regarding the Committee’s inquiry into the harm young New Zealanders encounter online and the roles of Government, business, and society in addressing those harms.
We call on the Committee to adopt PILLAR’s recommendations, supported by the undersigned, which defend parental rights and free speech while advancing practical and least-intrusive solutions that empower families, target illegal harms, and build digital resilience in young people.