Of course Social Media should be banned for under 16s AND for everyone over 65

Amnesty International calls for corporations to take responsibility for social media harm

A human rights organisation is backing calls for the government to set up an independent regulator for online safety.

A parliamentary select committee on Thursday released its report following an inquiry into social media harm for young people.

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Among its recommendations to the government and the private sector was a ban on social media for under-16s, the creation of a national regulator to ensure platforms were safe, and regulating deepfake technology.

Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand’s Lisa Woods said it was vital there was a watchdog in place.

“It’s really important that we’ve got a regulator that is continually monitoring what’s happening, continually monitoring ‘do we have the right laws in place? Are they effective, or do they need to be changed’.”

Woods said it was critical any regulator would need to be able to impose penalties against social media companies for it to be effective.

The New Zealand government had explored options of a social media ban after Australia implemented one, with National keen to progress with one before the end of this term.

RNZ

 

What is it with the Right always refusing to force producers of toxic products from paying for the social cost of those toxic products?

Smoking kills 67% of those who use them and Booze kills 600+ a year, yet the Right always want to let them off the hook for that damage.

The same is true of social media.

Social media has caused enormous social carnage, yet we point blank refuse to enforce any restrictions on them at all!

I don’t think the Australian ban of under 16s on social media actually goes far enough, and this brilliant piss take points out…

The Australien Government has made an ad about the Social Media Ban for Under-16s, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative. #auspol pic.twitter.com/QwcVOHptLs

— theJuiceMedia 🦋 (@thejuicemedia) December 9, 2025

…we should be doing far more to regulate social media.

It is designed to act like crack cocaine to your brain and addict you to endless doom scooping, why allow a product like that to be utterly unregulated?

Because the Tech Tzars are in total control now.

As the most recent AUT Journalism, Media and Democracy Research Centre Media Ownership Report 2025 points out, the media companies who create the content are valued at $381.2billion where as the Tech companies whose platforms that content appears on are valued at $21.9 trillion, that is an extraordinary change of power and influence over the entire media landscape with profound implications.

The Big Tech Tzars have manipulated our collective fear, ego, anger and insecurities through social media in a way that has led to the largest psychological civil war ever launched against one another.

Fuck the Big Tech Tzars and their damaging influence upon our culture, society and politics, their social media hate algorithms have created an All-Tribe-No-Village landscape that puts us against one another instead of those who are causing the damage!

Meanwhile, the planet burns and every aspect of our existence is monetarised for big data to sell us more stuff we can’t afford. We are alienated and anesthetized by a consumer culture that keeps us neurotic and disconnected. Our work, our existence, every move we make are all built to suck money to a minority class that sits above us while under neoliberalism, globalization, financialization, and automation, our existence as individuals has only become more disposable.

Banning under 16s from social media harm isn’t going far enough! Several studies have found that people 65+ share misinformation on social media more often than younger users and are more easy to exploit and trick!

Let’s ban social media for everyone under 18 AND people over 65!