The New Zealand government announced on August 25, 2026 that it has introduced the Online Safety (Minimum Age and Child Safety Risk Assessment) Bill to ban social media for youth under 16. The law would require social media platforms and AI companions to verify users' ages before providing services. The bill restricts platforms with harmful features including recommender systems, endless feeds, feedback features and time-limited features, and explicitly includes AI companion services while excluding messaging apps, professional networking sites, gaming and music platforms, and educational and health tools.
Targeted intervention at the point of harmful contact offers a mechanism that addresses risk without requiring universal identity verification or creating exemption categories that offenders can exploit. Guardii operates across multiple platforms—Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, Roblox and others—with real-time detection modules for grooming, sextortion, anti-CSAM including AI-generated material, age-inappropriate contact and cyberbullying, blocking or flagging hostile contact before it reaches the target and enabling rapid escalation to the right authority when a child is in crisis, whether on a regulated platform or one outside the scope of an age-based access restriction.
