Carl Bates: Education and Workforce Committee Acting Chair on the call for NZ to follow Australia's social media ban

Just because something's hard to do, doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. 

Parliament's education committee is recommending New Zealand consider following Australia in banning under 16s from social media. 

It's found the platforms are exposing young people to a wide range of harm. 

Acting Committee Chair Carl Bates told Heather du Plessis-Allan teens will get around a social media age limit like they get around the drinking age limit, but that isn't a reason not to try. 

He says this is about a cultural shift, and the majority of the committee believe we need to step up and ensure the internet is safe for children. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One day on from Australia officially banning social media for
under sixteens, and the verdict is mixed. Plenty of kids
have been kicked off the old Insta and TikTok, but
loads are still on there happily browsing away. Back here,
our parliaments given its interim verdict on whether we should
do the same in Carl Bates is the acting chair
of the Education and Workforce Select Committee and is with
us Morning Carl, Good morning Heather. How long are we

(00:21):
going to watch Australia before we make up our lines?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
So our final reporters do early in the new year,
and so you will get a clear indication when that
comes out, as I say, earlier in the new year.
But at this stage it's very clear from the majority
of members of the Committee that undertaking the band here
in New Zalmand would be a good idea.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Okay, So will that final report when it comes out
actually say yes or no we should do it.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
So there are a couple of things the Committee has
already said it thinks we should do, the ban being
one of them, the introduction of an online regulator being another.
And then there were a number of points where the
Committee has said these require further consideration and will provide
some final use in the final important what.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Do you think success in Australia looks like.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
So there's no doubt teenagers will get around it, as
you've been saying, just as they do buying alcohol and
driving when they don't have the right license. However, this
is about a culture shift, I think, and the majority
of the Committee believe we need to do this now,
that we need to step up efforts to ensure the
internet is a safe place for our children. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
I mean, ultimately this will live or die based on
whether you can get ACT support. How do you feel
about that? Because they don't sound like they love it.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Well, not necessarily. Labor have said that they support restricting
online access for under sixteen year old So maybe next
time you're someone from Labor or on the show, you'll
be able to ask them if they are keen to
Pullcatch and Weed's members bill out of the biscuit to
now and get on with it.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, fair point.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Now, having looked into this as a parent yourself, what
have you come out of it more concerned about? Is
it the scroll and what it does to the kids
on the social media, or is it the harassment and
bullying that happens between them on these platforms.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
So I think when you look at what the committee did,
we went much wider than just the online social media
harm components. So we look at content, so the self
harm issues, the manipulation, We look at conduct, so the
sharing of information, sexting, nude step fats, all of that,
the contact stuff that you've been referring to, their cyberability,

(02:29):
bullying and harassment, and then also commerce harm that happened
for our teenagers as well, scams and jammling and these things.
And there are some pretty horroring stories that came through
the selectivity process where parents and individuals shared their experiences,
and I just want to shout up to them for
opening up and sharing their personal stories.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, listen, thank you very much, Carla, to appreciate your time.
As Carl Bates, Acting Chair of the Education and Workforce
Committee here the Martin Luther King told us, we're morally
obligated to disobey bad law, and now banning under sixteen
year olds from learning media social media is certainly bad law,
and I will definitely be encouraging and helping my kids
to circumvent that law should be implemented in New Zealand,
but nuts, isn't it. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,

(03:12):
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